Three people associated with the Mendip Farmers Hunt have pleaded not guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs.
Emma Clothier, Charlie Thomas and Bill Payne appeared at Taunton Deane Magistrates’ Court on 15 September 2026. All three pleaded not guilty and are due to face trial on 15 September 2027.
The case relates to events on 17th January 2026, when the Mendip Farmers Hunt met at their kennels in Priddy, Somerset.
Mendip Hunt Sabs were with the hunt throughout the day and documented the day’s events, including from the air using a drone. After the meet, sabs reviewed the footage they had recorded.
The footage shows hounds working inside thick bramble for several minutes before a fox breaks cover. A group of hunters can be seen on an adjoining track, including two people on horseback and a person on foot, while other mounted riders can be seen around the bramble.
The person on foot is standing only a short distance from where the fox emerges and can be seen pointing in the direction in which the fox runs.
The hounds immediately give chase.
Within approximately a minute, the hounds catch the fox. The drone records the pack converging on the animal and the fox being killed.
The kill site was only a few hundred yards from where members of the hunt had been gathered near the patch of bramble. The drone continued filming for several minutes afterwards. During that time, no hunt member can be seen approaching the kill site, while further hounds can be seen joining the pack and tearing at the fox.
No attempt to retrieve the fox’s body was recorded by the drone, and eventually the hunt can be seen moving away from the area.
After reviewing their footage, Mendip Hunt Sabs returned to the location. There they discovered the mutilated body of the fox still lying where the hounds had killed her.
The drone footage was subsequently featured in a Channel 4 News investigation by Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson into the reality behind so-called “trail hunting” allegations that it is being used as a smokescreen for illegal fox hunting.
Among the footage broadcast was the Mendip Farmers fox kill. Channel 4 News also showed footage involving the Duke of Beaufort Hunt, including foxes being pursued and killed by hounds, one of those incidents has also resulted in three Beaufort hunters appearing in court, with a trial due to take place in April 2027.
The investigation also featured footage from the Eggesford Hunt showing a fox being bolted from underground; and covert-camera footage of the Heythrop Hunt showing chicken carcasses being dumped in woodland intended to attract foxes for hunting once the season begins.
Also present with the Mendip Farmers Hunt on the day of the incident, was Helena Rees-Mogg, wife of former Conservative cabinet minister and former North East Somerset MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The Rees-Mogg family’s association with the Mendip Farmers Hunt is longstanding. Helena Rees-Mogg has previously served as a master of the hunt, while the family has often hosted Mendip Farmers Hunt meets at their Somerset home.
Their eldest son, Peter Theodore Alphege Rees-Mogg, has also served as master of the Eton College Beagles.
A hunt saboteur spokesperson said “It is down to the relentless work of hunt sabs around the country – getting out there week after week, saving lives, filming hunts, gathering evidence and putting it in front of the police – that we are finally seeing so many hunters charged with hunting offences.
Whether they are convicted remains to be seen. Despite years of evidence, including the infamous Hunting Office webinars exposing so-called “trail hunting” as a smokescreen for the illegal hunting of wild mammals, we still do not have the law we need to bring these people before the courts, and to start churning out convictions at a rate that matches the scale of the crime.
More than twenty-one years after the Hunting Act came into force, hunt saboteurs are still having to put themselves between the hunts and their quarry while gathering evidence to put these people before the courts.
The sooner this government delivers its promised ban on this disgusting pastime enjoyed by a minority of bloodsports enthusiasts, the better.
Until then, hunt saboteurs will continue to be out there doing what we have always done, exposing hunting and saving lives”
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