Mel Brown[1] (born Mel Broughton; 5 July 1960) is a British landscape gardener and animal rights activist who rose to public prominence due to a planned bombing campaign aimed at preventing the construction of a new research laboratory at Oxford University.[2] He was the co-founder in 2004, with Robert Cogswell, of SPEAK, The Voice for the Animals, a campaign to stop animal testing in Britain, which is focused on opposition to a new animal laboratory at Oxford University.[3]
Broughton was sentenced to four years in 1998 after police found a firebomb in his car.[4] He was arrested again and remanded in custody in December 2007 after the Animal Liberation Front planted incendiary devices in Oxford University colleges. A jury cleared him of possessing explosive substances, but failed to reach a verdict on other charges. Following his retrial in 2009 he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit arson.[5] However, in March 2010 Mel Broughton had his conviction overturned, arguing that the DNA evidence in the case had been unreliable.[6] He was later granted bail with "stringent conditions" and was re-tried in June/July 2010.[7][8] On 13 July 2010 Broughton was once again found guilty and returned to prison to complete the balance of his sentence.
On his release, he continued his campaigns, and in September 2020 was seriously injured when trampled by a horse while protesting a Northamptonshire hunt.[9]