February 15, 2001 9:38: THE Queen of Operetta had to cancel a charity concert after animal rights protesters trashed the building where the event was due to be staged.

Soprano Marilyn Hill Smith, from Hazlemere, who has sung with the English National Opera, was due to sing at the Bayer building, Stoke Court, Stoke Poges, on Sunday evening.

She was due to be one of the entertainers at a concert to raise funds for St Mary's Church, Hedgerley, and Thames Valley Hospice, in Windsor.

But police were fearful of further criminal disturbances and advised that the concert should be cancelled.

The room where the event was due to be staged was filled with broken glass after about 50 members of SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) destroyed machinery and smashed windows as part of their bid to get Bayer to stop using Huntingdon Life Sciences to test products.

Around 160 people were expected for the concert, having bought tickets at £14 each, but the cancellation of the event meant that not only were the organisers out of pocket but the charities lost out too.

Miss Hill Smith said: "I think in my heart they are perhaps slightly misguided. I don't believe in animal cruelty any more than the next person does but I think there are ways of protesting.

"By trashing a building all they are doing is actually alienating the public and they have caused a great deal of unhappiness to the person organising the concert and to the charities."

The protesters went on to target other sites after hitting Bayer at about 2pm. Thames Valley Police arrested about 87 people at various sites, all of whom were later bailed .