A FRIGHTENED York woman told today how she is still the victim of mistaken identity in a campaign by animal rights extremists.

Helen Stewart, of Tang Hall, says she is being mistakenly targeted by protesters against shareholders in animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The activists think the previous tenant - who moved out a year ago - owned 1,339 shares in HSL.

When contacted by the Evening Press, the protesters - known as Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) - have apologised to Helen and promised to do all they can to stop it.

Helen let her home through a letting agency - to a couple she did not know - while moving around because of her husband's work.

As the Evening Press reported in August last year, her home was almost immediately targeted by people protesting against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) - a Cambridgeshire laboratory where animal testing is done.

But the protesters had got the wrong person.

They believed a man, who Helen had rented her home to, was a shareholder in HLS, and targeted him as part of a nationwide campaign.

He had left before Helen moved back, but stickers were stuck on to her windows and protesters with loud hailers shouted slogans outside her home.

Now Helen's home is being targeted again.

Her neighbours have been sent letters saying "he owns 1,339 shares in HLS and is making money from the devil's work".

They include a picture of a mutilated dog, and urge neighbours to "tell the man what they think of him".

Most worrying, they include the chilling message: "We will be visiting him soon."

Helen said: "I find this very unnerving and I want it to stop. I live here with my son Harry, who is six, he remembers it from last time and is very scared. When he saw the latest letter he said: 'Oh no, not this again.'"

Helen said she does not own shares in HSL and never has done. She added: "I a 100 per cent animal lover who disagrees with animal testing.

A spokeswoman for (SHAC) said: "We can only apologise for any distress. We will do all we can to remove this address from the lists and I will contact groups in York immediately to tell them about the situation."

Updated: 15:32 Wednesday, August 15, 2001