The circus owner Bobby Roberts has been found guilty of three counts of causing unnecessary suffering to an elephant. His wife, Moira, was cleared of all charges after a five-day trial at Northampton crown court.

The tale of Anne, the UK's last circus elephant, began in January last year when an investigator with Animal Defenders International crept into the Cambridgeshire farm where the Bobby Roberts Super Circus holes up for the winter.

He set up a camera in a hole in the barn and over the next 25 days it recorded images that shocked animal lovers not only in the UK but around the world.

The footage appeared to catch a groom striking the 58-year-old elephant with a pitchfork and kicking her. It also seemed to show the circus owner kicking out at Anne's trunk.

ADI published extracts of its footage on its website and it appeared in the Daily Mail in March last year, prompting an outcry from the tabloid, other newspapers, animal charities and the public.

The Roberts family expressed their anger and concern over what the worker – who is said to have fled back home to Romania – had done to Anne. They said they regarded Anne, who had been with them since she arrived in the UK from Sri Lanka in the 1950s, as a "family pet", not just a performing animal.

But the pressure on the couple was huge and in April they agreed to give her up. Ownership was signed over to Specialist Wildlife Services, which rescues and re-homes animals ranging from wolves to wallabies, and Longleat Safari Park offered her a permanent home.

Such was the media's interest in witnessing Anne's move that police in Northamptonshire treated her as they would a category A prisoner and she was whisked away under cover of darkness. Anne settled into her new home well and Longleat staff felt that despite the evidence of the footage, she was in pretty good condition.

They were bad times for Bobby and Moira Roberts. "It's very, very difficult," Mr Roberts told the Observer at the time. "The animals are my life and Anne meant the world to me."

Mrs Roberts said: "When I arrived on the circus she was still a baby. I took over boiling her rice and feeding her through the night. She needed mollycoddling. There are so many memories."

Worse was to come for the couple as ADI and the public demanded that someone to be brought to justice over Anne. Initially ADI launched a private prosecution against the Robertses. But the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, judged the level of pubic concern to be so high that the Crown Prosecution Service took it over.

Mr and Mrs Roberts were in court this week accused of causing the elephant unnecessary suffering by leaving her chained to the ground, failing to take steps to prevent an employee causing her suffering and failing to ensure the needs of the animal were met. They denied all the charges, brought under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

The disturbing footage was played in court. It was claimed the film showed that Mr Roberts had authorised casual violence towards Anne, that the animal was kept chained in the barn and was not receiving the medication she needed for arthritis.

Mr Roberts, in a purple waistcoat, told the court he had been disgusted at the groom's actions and would have reported him to the police if he had known. He described giving the elephant shots of brandy to pep her up when she was unwell and giving her candy floss as a treat. He said he did not normally kick out at Anne.

A former ringmaster at the circus, Derfel Williams, said Mr Roberts had treated his animals better than humans. "It was animals first at all times," he said. Jon Cracknell, the director of animal operations at Longleat, was largely supportive of the Robertses. He said Anne was in very good condition for her age and told the court the couple had regularly contacted Longleat to check on Anne's progress.

"Mr Roberts does care about Anne," he said. "I don't feel Mr Roberts is someone who is the cruel example of the circus industry that is being made out in the newspapers."

There is a political sideshow to the saga of Anne. In March the government announced it would ban the use of wild animals in travelling circuses. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says a "handful" of circuses still travel with wild animals. But in the meantime it is bringing in a licensing scheme for circuses with wild animals, due to come into force in the new year.

Some supporters of a ban, including ADI, are angry that a licensing scheme rather than a full ban is, for the moment, being brought in. ADI's chief executive, Jan Creamer, said: "Like the badger cull, the government's handling of the issue of wild animals in circuses has been an absolute shambles. For just a handful of circuses, Defra is jumping through hoops to ensure that licensing is implemented, when the ban that the public and parliament was promised would be simpler and cheaper to implement, and receive the approval of the public, welfare groups and politicians."

The shadow environment secretary, Mary Creagh, has accused Defra of a hat-trick of U-turns – over circus animals, the badger cull and the plan to sell off forests.

Anne, meanwhile, continues to do well at Longleat. The safari park was keen to keep her out of the spotlight this week but in the summer said she was enjoying a "new lease of life", adding: "The difference and improvement in skin condition, feet, trunk, ears and general muscle tone is clear to see and she certainly doesn't look like an elephant approaching 60."

The report added: "Anne is a very well-behaved elephant and her relationship with her keepers is improving with every day. Anne has regular physiotherapy under the guidance of an animal osteopath, we have a new hay barn dedicated to her food storage, she has elephant-sized scratching posts and new feed facilities located within the current facility. She also continues to enjoy her giant sandpit which she loves to flick on to her back and roll around in."