ANIMAL rights activist Barry Horne, who ran up a £11,000 hospital bill after a 68-day hunger strike, is once again taking up a bed York District Hospital.

Barry Horne

The convicted arsonist was admitted as a patient last night after calling off his latest fast - the fourth since he began his 18-year sentence in 1996.

There was public outcry after the cost of his last 27-day stay was revealed, and today Ryedale MP John Greenway and York MP Hugh Bayley said Horne's hospital care should not place an additional burden on the NHS.

"We know what it cost last time," said Mr Greenway.

"The prison service had basically got no alternative but to treat him, but this is a deliberate, selfish and futile act and local hospitals should not be forced to pay for this type of treatment."

A hospital spokeswoman confirmed to the Evening Press that Horne was being treated for the effects of his latest 19-day hunger strike.

"Mr Barry Horne has been admitted to the hospital at the request of HMP Full Sutton and he will be rehydrated," she said.

But she said there would be no further comment made until Monday, when doctors would have had a chance to fully assess his health.

A prison service spokesman confirmed an inmate from Full Sutton, who had been refusing food since March 30, had been taken to York District Hospital last night.

"He is now taking liquids and is going to take food and we hope he will make a full recovery," he said.

Horne had only been off hunger strike for three months when he began his latest fast.

The reasons for it are said to be 'personal' and unrelated to the animal rights movement.

The Animals Betrayed Coalition said Horne had decided not to discuss the motives for his latest hunger strike and it would only issue a statement in the event of his death.

Today, his friends said they had not been able to visit him and had no idea about his condition.

The earlier hunger strike by the former Northampton dustman began in October 1998 and came to an end after 68 days, amid public anger about its drain on the cash-strapped health service.

And demonstrations by his supporters, who staged a sit-in in the accident and emergency department, caused the official opening of its cancer care centre to be put off.

On that occasion Horne, who has two children, claimed the Government had broken promises about improving conditions for laboratory animals.

Incendiary devices planted by Horne caused £3 million damage to shops on the Isle of Wight.

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