AN animal rights activist who planned to firebomb drug firms involved in tests on animals was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Tony Humphries, 33, who acted as spokesman for jailed campaigner, Barry Horne, during his hunger strike last year, was arrested after police watched him coming and going from a Northampton flat suspected of being used as a bomb factory.

Humphries, an electrician and father of three, of Yardley Hastings, Northants, denied conspiracy to cause an explosion and possession of an explosive substance, when he appeared at Northampton Crown Court.