Anti-hunt campaigner Penny Little won a High Court libel action against a hunt supporter who launched a personal attack on her during a radio debate.

Mrs Little, 46, of Cobb Hall Cottage, Great Haseley, was awarded £1,500 damages by a jury plus costs, estimated at £40,000.

The executive committee member and hunt monitor for the League Against Cruel Sports went to the High Court in London after Janet George, press officer of the then British Field Sports Society, now the Countryside Alliance, accused her of swearing at children at a hunt meet in October 1997.

Mrs Little, whose barrister said the claims were a fantasy, told the Oxford Mail after the case: "It's been a terrible strain and it has been a year of worry. "I'm extremely pleased with the outcome, I really am. I have listened to the most dreadful things said about myself. I feel completely vindicated."

She said she would spend the money she was awarded on more monitoring equipment to continue her fight against fox hunting and her animal sanctuary Little Foxes, which looks after orphaned animals.

Mrs Little, who tries to expose any evidence of cruelty or the breaking of hunt rules, was subjected to a "completely gratuitous personal attack" by Mrs George during a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in last November.

She told the court she was astounded, shocked and appalled at the accusation that she subjected children to "appalling" swearing when the Vale of Aylesbury hunt met near Watlington. Mrs George's claims that she had shouted "evil bastards" and "sadistic murderers" were a complete invention, the court heard. Mrs George had not been at the meet.

The radio debate, hosted by Nicky Campbell, came at a time when the fox hunting was a particularly hot potato with an anti-hunting bill was scheduled to have its first reading in the House of Commons.

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