THREE halal slaughtermen and their two bosses will now face trial over alleged animal cruelty, the High Court has decided.

The charges against them relate to the alleged mistreatment of sheep as they were being killed at the Bowood abattoir at Busby Stoop, near Thirsk.

A district judge had ruled that prosecutors had taken too long to bring the case to court, making proceedings legally void.

However the Crown Prosecution Service appealed against that finding and it has now been overturned by two High Court judges sitting in Leeds.

The ruling by Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Mr Justice Kerr means the case against slaughtermen Kabeer Hussein, Kazam Hussein and Artur Lewandowski and the owners of the abattoir, Robert and William Woodward will now go to trial at magistrates court, probably in Wakefield.

The case relates to an investigation carried out by the animal rights group Animal Aid in early 2015.

Their farming and slaughter campaigns manager Luke Steele said: “Animal Aid today welcomes the decision by Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Mr Justice Kerr to overturn the out of time finding in the Bowood slaughterhouse case.

“We hope that justice can now be done.”

Mr Lewandowski, 30, of Darlington, was charged with two counts of causing suffering to four sheep by lifting them by their fleeces during the slaughter process.

Kabeer Hussain, 43, of Bradford, was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to 24 sheep by failing to give them sufficient time to lose consciousness before they were killed.

Kazam Hussein, 53, also of Bradford, was charged with causing suffering to 29 sheep, including not giving sheep enough time to lose consciousness, striking them during slaughter, and failing to cut their throats with a single cut.

Robert Woodward, 68, and his son, William, 30, both from the Daventry area of Northamptonshire, were charged with failing to act to prevent the acts by several employees that caused animals to suffer.