Ten animal rights campaigners who invaded the track at Ayr Racecourse earlier this year and held up the Scottish Grand National have now been fined.

Two more are still awaiting sentence after 24 people tried to disrupt the big race.

Activists from the Animal Rising groupinterrupted the meeting back in April, saying they wanted to highlight the deaths of 46 horses in races at Ayr since 2007.

All the 24 people charged were accused of committing a breach of the peace by entering the track on April 22 while a meeting was in progress, equipped with glue and piping and other implements designed to enable people to secure themselves to jumps, fences or railings.

Each faced a second charge of having tresspassed on the grounds.

Alex Hamil, 55, pleaded not guilty to both charges, but was found guilty of breaching the peace under deletion of words 'and other implements'.

Ayr Advertiser:

His not guilty plea to the second tresspass charge was accepted.

Co-accused Alan Guthrie, 54, Jennifer D’Netto, 53, and Robert Houston, 44, London, all pleaded guilty to the same amended charge, and had their not guilty pleas accepted.

Each of the four, of Bath, Manchester, Wells and London, were fined £200, plus a £20 payment to the Scottish Govenment fund.

At a previous hearing, Katrielle Chan, 21, Joseph Moss, 20, Tatum Paul, 20, and Alexandra Dunnet, 23, pleaded guilty to the same amended charge of breaching the peace.

Their not guilty pleas to the second trespass charge were accepted.

The four, of Glasgow, Sale, Manchester and London, were each fined £180 plus a £10 victim surcharge fund payment.

Rose Paterson, 34, from London, had been due to be sentenced after she and Joshua Parkinson, 27, from Leeds, admitted the breach of the peace charge.

But sentence on Paterson and Parkinson was deferred until later dates and the pair were orderd to attend in person.

We previously reported Sarah Foy, 23, and Osian Dixon, 26, were each convicted of a breach of the peace charge and fined £200, with an additional £10 victim surcharge.

Dixon, of Manchester, was also convicted of trespass, while Foy, of Alfreton, Derbyshire, was acquitted of trespass due to lack of evidence.

Dixon was admonished on the trespass charge.

A reference to the accused having “overcome security” was removed from the charge.

The Scottish Grand National's 18-horse race, which started at 3.38pm on the day, was won by Kitty’s Light.

There were no further protests at Ayr's second big meeting of the year, the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup Festival, held from September 21-23.