A British court on Friday found a circus owner guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a performing elephant.

A judge at Northampton Crown Court, England, convicted Bobby Roberts after the court was shown secretly-filmed footage of a groom hitting 58-year-old elephant Anne with a pitchfork.

The video, which was recorded by the group Animal Defenders International in 2011, showed the groom kicking and hitting the Asian elephant, which was seen chained by a foot and a hind leg in a barn at the Roberts' farm in Polebrook, England.

The 69-year-old Roberts told the court during a five-day trial that he would never have condoned the behaviour of the groom, who is believed to have returned to his home in Romania.

He was given a three-year conditional discharge on Friday.

Jan Creamer, President of the animal protection organisation Animal Defenders International, criticised the sentence.

"No costs, no fine, and the conditional discharge is just derisory. And it's giving the message to these circus owners that they don't need to protect those animals," Creamer said.

Anne has been living at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire, England, since April 2011, and has been receiving treatment for her arthritis.