Human remains found in Staffordshire woodland are those of an elderly woman whose body was robbed from her grave by animal rights extremists, police have confirmed.

The body of Gladys Hammond, 82, was found after Police received new information on its location.

It was stolen by animal rights activists involved in a long-running hate campaign against the Hall family who run Darley Oaks Farm in nearby Newchurch.

The Hall family announced last August that it would cease breeding guinea pigs, which were used in bio-medical research, at the farm in the hope that the move would prompt the grave-robbers to return Mrs Hammond's remains.

The breakthrough comes just days before four animal rights extremists are due to be sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court for conspiracy to blackmail the farm.

Kerry Whitburn, John Smith, John Ablewhite and Josephine Mayo all pleaded guilty last month to taking part in the six-year campaign, which culminated in the theft of the pensioner's body.

The four were described as "determined and cold-blooded defenders of their perceived cause" by a judge for their part in the activists' battle against Darley Oaks.

Whitburn, 36, of Summer Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham; Smith, 39, of Leicester Street, Wolverhampton, Ablewhite, 36, of Hawley Street, Manchester; and Mayo, 38, of Spring Bank Road, Edgbaston, all pleaded guilty to conspiring to blackmail David Hall and Partners and others connected to the farm between September 1999 and September 2005.