21st October 2011
Wildlife crime costs pair £10,040
An appeal court judge has said he was “impressed by the knowledge and integrity” of Dr Pamela Mynott, of the Leicestershire Badger Group, an expert witness for the Crown. He noted that she and the other Crown Expert witness, Professor Stephen Harris, had considerable experience and qualifications while the evidence of the defence expert witness, Mr Caruana, “lacked objectivity”.
The Leicester Mercury reported* that the judge dismissed an appeal by two hunt employees convicted of breaching hunting and wildlife laws. They had been found guilty earlier this year of hunting a live fox and digging into an active badger sett. However, Huntsman Derek Hopkins and terrierman Kevin Allen, of the Market Harborough-based Fernie Hunt, had claimed they were hunting an artificial trail when caught on film by hunt monitors. They also said they had dug into a hole to shoot a fox that had gone to ground, not to release it so it could be hunted. They had examined the hole and believed it was not a badger sett in current use.
After the five-day appeal Judge Michael Pert QC confirmed the convictions and accused the Fernie Hunt of using the “cover of trail hunting as a cynical subterfuge. . . It is clear to us that the hunt was hunting a live fox.”
Judge Pert said he and two magistrates at the earlier hearing had been convinced that the hunt had dug into an active badger sett and added: “We found Hopkins to be an unconvincing witness. We found Allen to be shifty and evasive.” Hopkins (46), of Welham Road, Great Bowden, was fined a total of £850 with a £15 victim surcharge and £1,250 costs and £3,630 additional costs to cover the appeal. Allen (52), of Nether Green, Great Bowden, was fined a total of £650 with a £15 victim surcharge and £900 costs with £2,730 additional costs.
The Judge praised the objectivity of the four investigators from the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), who had filmed the hunt on January 27, 2010 and Joe Duckworth, chief executive of LACS, described the appeal as “ridiculous”. The video showed that the fox came out of the hole and was hotly pursued by the hounds. The sound of the horn urging the hounds on could be heard. Judge Pert noted that the video evidence showed that two setts, including the one into which the fox had bolted, had clearly been freshly dug and blocked, probably the day before the hunt took place. He said that one obvious reason for doing this was to prevent a fox taking refuge underground when it was being hunted.
The court heard that hounds of the Fernie Hunt marked at a badger sett, a terrier was put in; it located a fox and was dug out – an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act.
David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust, said he was delighted with the outcome. “People simply cannot dig into badger setts without breaking the law. Operation Meles is now bringing to light crimes of this kind and exposing the lengths and expense criminals like these will go to, the support they receive from organisations that should know better, and the cynical subterfuge involved here”.
*http://www.