A woman charged with blackmail following a nationwide police operation has made a brief appearance before a crown court judge.

Suzanne Jaggers, 35, of Upper Sackville Street, Skipton, was originally remanded in custody after being arrested as part of a co-ordinated series of raids targetting criminal activity associated with animal rights extremism.

Last month a judge at Bradford Crown Court granted Jaggers bail with a series of conditions and today she was in court again for a further pre-trial hearing.

Jaggers, who must reside at her home address and report to Skipton police station at weekends, was told that her next appearance at the crown court would be on July 17 when she is expected to formally enter her plea to the allegation.

Judge Peter Benson confirmed that a provisional trial date had been set for August 29 and he extended Jaggers' bail on the same terms as before.

It is a condition of her bail that she does not apply for any travel documents.

She is also banned from having any contact, directly or indirectly, with any employee of Huntingdon Life Sciences or any person known or suspected of being associated with any business or company associated with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Jaggers is only allowed to contact other animal rights activists via her legal representative and she is banned from participating, either in person, by mail or via the internet, in any animal rights demonstrations in the United Kingdom or abroad.