Calls by the Hunting Office and Countryside Allowance yesterday for major landowners to life their suspension of licenses allowing “trail-hunting” on their land were vociferous. They stemmed from former Hunting Office Director Mark Hankinson managing to get his 2021 conviction for encouraging illegal fox-hunting overturned yesterday at Southwark Magistrates Court. The judge who supported his appeal against the original conviction was clear that Hankinson’s words, spoken during a series of Hunting Office webinars, could have been interepreted as encouraging illegal hunting but there was no intent by Hankinson for them to have been construed in such a way. Clearly, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), presiding judge in the first case, me and many others saw it differently.
The outcome of the Hankinson appeal immediately led to much triumphalism in hunting circles. Surely now the likes of the National Trust, Forestry England, the Lake Distrcit National Park Authority and others would accept that “trail-hunting” isn’t a sham and begin to issue new licenses to hunts? To make such a claim is to overlook the procession of huntsman and hunt supporters shuffling through the courts in 2022 so far. And it’s only July.
Clearing the name of a chap talking to attendees of a webinar does nothing to remove the growing sense of disgust and dismay outside the hunting community when you consider the (current) roll call of 2022 hunting miscreants. And it’s only the first week of July.
John Holliday, previously of the Belvoir Hunt, has been charged with hunting a wild mammal with a dog on 15th January 2022. He is due to appear in Leicester Magistrates Court on Friday 15th July 2022. Leicestershire Police charged him with hunting a wild mammal with a dog – not of a class exempted by Schedule 1 to the Hunting Act 2004. Holliday, from Delamere Road, Bromyard, Herefordshire, appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court on Friday 15th July 2022 and is expected to face a trial at the same court on 17 November.
Chris Mardles of the Quorn Hunt and previously from the Pytchley and Woodland Hunt, appeared at Northampton Magistrates Court on 29th June 2022 charged with Grievous Bodily Harm towards a member of the public in Market Harborough. Now on unconditional bail he will be tried at Nottingham Crown Court during the week commencing 13th March 2023.
Charles Carter of the Royal Artillery Hunt has had his court appearance adjourned once again. He was due to appear at Swindon Magistrates Court on 16th June 2022 for a plea hearing, but the court ran out of time. He had been charged with illegally hunting a wild mammal with dogs on MOD land in 2021 but it’s now been announced the case has been dropped by the CPS due to a “technicality”.
Matt Ramsden and Rhys Matcham from the Beaufort Hunt pleaded “not guilty” on 25th May 2022 at Swindon Magistrates Court to a charge of breaches of the Hunting Act 2004 last September. Their trial is scheduled to take place in September 2022.
Mark Antony Pearson of the South Dorset Hunt has been charged with hunting a wild animal with dogs in December 2021. His trial is set for the 17th & 18th of October 2022 at Weymouth Magistrates Court.
Paul O’Shea, a terrier man with the East Essex Hunt, pleaded guilty to Hunting Act 2004 and animal cruelty offences at Chelmsford Magistrates Court on 22nd June 2022 having been filmed stabbing a live fox with a garden fork. Sentencing will take place on 1st August 2022.
Chris Woodward of the Wynnstay Hunt has been charged with two separate hunting-related offences. One occurred near Malpas in November 2021 and the other near Wrexham in February of this year. His trial is due to take place in Wrexham on 6th September 2022.
William Hanson, huntsman, Fernie Hunt, is charged with hunting a wild mammal with a dog during a meet near Peatling Magna, Leicestershire on 8th January 2022. He appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court on Wednesday 13th July 2022 and pleaded not guilty. Hanson will go to trial at Loughborough Magistrates Court on 16th November 2022.
Daniel Cherriman, Master and huntsman, and Oliver Beasley, kennel man, South Shropshire Hunt pleaded not guilty to Hunting Act offences in Telford Magistrates Court on 21st June 2022. The case was adjourned for one month for case management. The alleged offence occurred in November last year. This was the hunt that trespassed on the National Trust’s Long Mynd days after the Trust banned all such activities.
Paul Martin, a member of the Western Hunt based in Madron, pleaded guilty on 13th June 2022 at Truro Magistrates Court to assault by beating and criminal damage in Sennen in October 2021. He was given a 6 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay a victim surcharge, compensation and CPS costs and was also given a 6-month conditional discharge for the offence of damaging a mobile phone.
Arun Squires, Huntsman from the Puckeridge Hunt appeared at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court on the 13th July 2022 charged with an alleged Section 1 of the Hunting Act offence over an incident on 27 December 2021, during the Puckeridge Hunt’s Boxing Day meet near Brent Pelham, Hertfordshire. He will appear at Stevenage Magistrate Court on 15th November 2022.
An unnamed hunt supporter, with East Sussex and Romney Marsh Hunt, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and criminal damage. The incident involved a tractor ramming a hunt monitor’s vehicle. The defendant has been banned from driving as part of his bail conditions and was due to be sentenced on 5th July 2022.
Duncan Drewitt and Verity Drewitt, landowners and Vale of White Horse Hunt members have been charged with breaches of both S.1 and S.3 of the Hunting Act 2004 with Sophie Scruton, Master of Vale of White Horse Fox Hounds has also been charged under S.1. This is the first occasion charges have been brought under S.3 of the Act. S.1 is the offence of hunting wild mammals with dogs. S.3 is the offence of knowingly permitting land owned by you to be entered or used in the course of committing an offence under S.1. All three will appear at Swindon Magistrates Court on 2nd August 2022.
How many of the above are convicted (those that haven’t already confessed their guilt) remains to be seen. How the hunting bodies, and landowners, react to each conviction will be far more revealing than sounding the horn over Mark Hankinson clearing his name.
ecolelogical 