The breaking-up of one of Britain’s biggest dog-fighting rings was accomplished by a major investigation by the RSPCA, resulting in the jailing of three men and a woman.

At Lincoln magistrates court Claire Parker, 44 and a mother of three was jailed for 18 weeks for holding dog fights at her home in Kexby, Lincs where RSPCA investigators found a blood-stained fighting pit in her garage. Also jailed was Mohammed Nasir Farooq, for 26 weeks for attending a dog fight, and Gary Adamson and Owen Batey for 23 weeks each for keeping dogs for fighting.

The RSPCA have paid tribute to the bravery and determination of the late Stephen Ibinson, a BBC reporter who went undercover for Panorama and obtained footage which was used in evidence.

Government plans to fit every dog with a rice-grain sized microchip carrying details of its owner should make it harder for dogs to be used for fighting.