CONVICTED: ‘Sadistic’ Huntsman Guilty Of Two More Animal Cruelty Charges

Former Old Berkshire Huntsman Oliver Thompson was spared jail on Monday. He was handed a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, told to complete 300 hours of unpaid work, and to pay costs of £2,500.

He had previously pleaded guilty to two separate Section 4 Animal Welfare Act charges at an earlier hearing, and was back in court this week for sentencing. The court heard how Thompson, during his time as kennel huntsman and whipper-in at the Avon Vale hunt, had, along with huntsman Stuart Radbourne, thrown a fox to the hounds.

The incident was said to have occurred on Christmas Eve 2020 ‘near Melksham’, and was witnessed by a young child who was seen in the video, which had been shared amongst the fox hunting fraternity on social media chat groups. The child was said to belong to another terrierman present. Other charges of causing unnecessary suffering to dogs, against two more terriermen, Tom Ledbury and Charlie Ball were dropped. Stuart Radbourne was sentenced in October 2023 for his role in this same Christmas Eve incident.

Thompson further admitted guilt of an additional Section 4 Animal Welfare Act charge relating to a separate incident. This charge relates to the leaked video released earlier this year by the HSA which shows Thompson, as he was being filmed by his wife Felicity, baiting a terrified fox to one of his terriers. The incident was said to have also occurred in 2020, but appears to have been during the summer months. Felicity was also charged along with her husband, and they were living at the time at the Avon Vale kennels in Spye Park, near Melksham. The crown offered no evidence in the case of Felicity and the case against her was dropped.

The terrier, ‘Nelly’, was being trained to be ‘hardened’ for terrier work. Fox hunts will often hunt a fox to ground, and then they call in the terriermen, with their terriers to locate and dig out the fox. Often the fox will then simply be thrown to the hounds, other times the fox will be bolted to be hunted again. This scenario was also played out in another separate incident which occurred in Brokerswood in December 2022, when this same hunt dug out a fox to throw to some of the hounds, as a second fox bolted to be pursued by the huntsman and remaining hounds.

The court described Thompson as ‘sadistic’ and said that he played a ‘leading role’ in the depraved act. This comes as no surprise to any of us, but the depravity extends far beyond one or two hunt staff. The investigation into Thompson was part of a wider investigation initiated by the RSPCA involving several police forces around the country and resulted in the seizure of 22 terriers and the arrests of 6 men, including three huntsmen. This isn’t a case of a rogue hunt, but goes to the very heart of the smokescreen that is ‘trail’ hunting.

Not forgetting that next week Winchester Crown Court also welcomes another Avon Vale Terrierman, Alex Warden, who faces trial by jury having pleaded not guilty to animal welfare charges. This is for his role in the December 2022 video, where he was seen lifting his terrier out of the ground just before whipper-in Aaron Fookes threw one of the two foxes to the hounds.

It is telling that the British Hounds Sports Association (BHSA) whilst aware of the videos for some months, did not act to bar Thompson from their membership until the story became impossible to contain. Even the Old Berkshire Hunt – where Thompson had been the huntsman since leaving the Avon Vale in 2021, allowed their sadistic huntsman to resign quietly and even put on a hunt ball for his benefit.

As well as desperately trying to present themselves as a governing body with teeth, the BHSA are also busy trying to cover up hunting’s dirty secrets by putting on absurd ‘trail hunting demos’ for the public, police and politicians. The video of the demo is, as to be expected, a ridiculous farce, which is marginally more interesting only for the fact we are treated to a bizarre interjection of hunter Simon Dunn eating his sarnies.

However in reality the BHSA is really nothing more than a useless, toothless attempt by hunters to use yet more smokescreens to cover its criminal activity. The new governing body itself is a post-webinars invention – itself a smokescreen – set up to try to convince the public that they haven’t really been hunting illegally all this time – or are no longer doing so.

The BHSA supposedly has advised its members against taking terriers out with them, yet many of their membership hunts still ignore them. The Avon Vale hunt was of course banned from membership earlier this year, but it really makes no difference. The hunt has duly set itself up as a private pack, and the hounds are being kept in a locked barn at Stuart Radbourne’s equestrian centre, Abbotswood, also near Melksham. The stock round has been restarted by hunt terrierman Ryan Walpole Johnsen, and they have been hunting the hounds in some old haunts since the season began. The problem is not just who governs them, the problem is that they exist at all.

A Hunt Saboteurs Spokesperson said:

“For almost two decades the Avon Vale hunt has inflicted unspeakable cruelty on the local wildlife, the current tsunami of convictions do not even reflect the tip of the iceberg as to the criminality and barbarity which is part of daily life for every trail hunt in the country, empowered to do so by the inaction of the law, feeling so confident in their criminality that they record and share their criminal antics on social media chat groups believing themselves to be untouchable.

Meanwhile their former governing body are desperately launching PR campaigns to convince the public, police and politicians that these hunts are out hunting within the law. Hunt Saboteurs are out in the fields, week in week out and witness the cruelty at every hunt we attend. The next government must act and close down the smokescreen of trail hunting for good.”