© 2025 Hunt Saboteurs Association
Rogues Gallery
Since the enactment of the Hunting Act 2004, hunters have consistently demonstrated a disregard for the law. Below is a snapshot of offenses committed by hunters and their associates, listed in chronological order based on the date the case outcome was decided.
Please note that this is a summary and does not include all offenses.
Contents
Luke Saddington, Thug for the Grove & Rufford Hunt
Saddington was convicted in his absence, along with Simon Noble, for a violent home robbery.
Saddington was sentenced to 14 years for the robbery. Noble was jailed for 11 years and eight months.
In March 2019, Saddington launched a terrifying attack on hunt sabs, ramming both the Manchester and Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs vehicles off the road, to prevent them from keeping tabs on the Grove & Rufford Hunt.
Read more
Andrew Kean and Barrington Nurse-Phillips, hired hunt thugs from the Cottesmore Hunt
Kean was convicted of two charges of assault by beating, and one charge of common assault, while Barrington Nurse-Phillips, was charged with two charges of common assault.
The charges related to incidents at the opening meet of the Cottesmore Hunt at Knossington, Leicestershire, in October 2024, while both men were acting as so-called ‘hunt stewards.’
Kean received a two-year restraining order and a ban from attending any Cottesmore Hunt meets. He also must not approach any of the victims on any public footpath or public space anywhere.
Read more
Oliver Dale, Huntsman and Master of the North Cotswold Hunt
Dale has been charged with three instances of illegal hunting under the Hunting Act by Gloucestershire Police.
The alleged offences took place at various locations on three dates; the first took place during a cubbing meet on 12 Oct 2024, then at the Opening Meet on 02 Nov 2024, the third incident occurred just a fortnight later on 16th Nov 2024. The first incident resulted in a fox being killed, with some of the body parts of the victim being retrieved by police, and in the later two incidents the fate of the animals are unknown.
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George Pierce - Huntsman, Conall McGrath - Whipper-in, Andrew and Freddie Osborne - Terriermen, from the Blackmore & Sparkford Vale Hunt
Four members of the notorious Blackmore & Sparkford Vale Hunt were found guilty at Weymouth Magistrates Court of hunting a wild mammal with dogs in breach of the Hunting Act.
McGrath and Pierce were ordered to pay fines and court costs totalling £1,140 each and the other two defendants were each ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £930.
The incident took place in December 2023 at Pelsham Farm near Buckhorn Weston.
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Benjamin Halsall, member of the Warwickshire Hunt
Halsall was found guilty of hunting a wild mammal with dogs and ordered to pay a fine of £2000.
The incident happened on 9th October 2023. Halsall turned a fox back towards the hounds in woods where it was killed by the pack moments later.
Whilst attempting to stop the kill, the member of Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs was thrown to the floor by a hunt member.
Read more
Sam Staniland, former Huntsman of the Essex and Suffolk Hunt
Staniland was found guilty on four charges of animal cruelty
1. Failing to take reasonable steps to meet the needs of three Patterdale terriers and protect from harm and suffering and protect from fighting badgers and foxes in April 2023.
2. Causing suffering to a foxhound for failing to prevent fighting with a fox on 17th October 2022.
3. Causing suffering to a foxhound for failing to prevent fighting with a fox on 17th October 2022.
4. Failing to ensure needs of two black lurcher type dogs were met to protect from harm and suffering by allowing them to fight with a badger on 17th October 2022.
Staniland was sentenced at Norwich Magistrates Court in April 2025. Despite what judge Matthew Bone described as “depraved” and “frankly sadistic behaviour”, Staniland escaped the prison time he so richly deserved, being sentenced to just 26 weeks in prison, but suspended for 18 months. He was also banned from keeping dogs for 5 years, he must do some community service and pay £1,200 in costs.
Read more
Shane Chapman, South Dorset Hunt & BSV Hunt Supporter
Chapman received a five year Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) for an assault and theft in West Dorset which took place in September 2023
CBO conditions include:
- Not to be in possession of a wild animal, wild bird or part of a wild animal or bird living or dead in Dorset without being able to prove where it came from.
- Not to be in possession of a catapult or shot such as ball bearings, pebbles or similar items capable of being used as shot or be in a vehicle with catapult or such shot, in a place to which the public have access or private land as a trespasser.
- Not to attend any location where there is a hunt taking place, whether that be pre planned, informal or organised.
- Not to attend, loiter or be near any hunt activity or to associate with any person linked with any hunt at the time of such activity.
David Conde, Terrierman for the South Shropshire Hunt
David Conde pleaded guilty to interfering with a badger sett while acting as terrierman for the South Shropshire Hunt. He was fined £845.
Conde was caught in January 2024 on hidden cameras in woodland west of Shrewsbury, blocking badger sett entrances with a spade just ahead of a visit by the South Shropshire Hunt.Read more
Ryan Brennan, Terrierman for the Wynnstay Hunt
Ryan Brennan pleaded guilty to interfering with badger setts while acting as terrierman for the Sir Watkins Williams Wynn (Wynnstay) Hunt.
He was fined £85 court costs, £154 surcharge, sentenced to 10 weeks imprisonment suspended for 12 months and 100 hours unpaid work. The incident happened in January 2024 near Ellesmere.Read more
David Fildes, hired thug for the Cottesmore Hunt
David Fildes was found guilty of Assault by beating, unlawful violence and using threatening /abusive /insulting words / behaviour with intent to cause fear of / provoke.
The Cottesmore Hunt employed Fildes, along with several others, to cause violence and intimidation to hunt sabs.Read more
Neil Burton, Burton Hunt Huntsman
Burton was found guilty under Section 1 of the Hunting Act 2004 and fined £600.
The charges related to an incident that occurred on Riseholme Lane, very close to the hunts' kennels on 27th January 2024, when Lincoln Hunt Saboteurs observed and filmed Burton intentionally encourage his hounds to hunt a fox.Read more
Tom Lyle (huntsman) and Marcus Boundy (former whip), Portman Hunt
Lyle was ordered to pay £1,660 in a fine and court costs, Boundy £810 for intentionally hunting a wild mammal with dogs.
Tom Lyle and Marcus Boundy were found guilty of illegally hunting a fox with hounds during a meet in Stourpaine in September 2022. Just two days before the trial, Lyle was the press contact for the BHSA's Smokescreen Saturday trail laying demonstration event.Read more
Marc Birney, Pytchley with Woodland Hunt Supporter
Birney was found guilty of punching a hunt sab twice in the jaw as they sat in their car.
The unprovoked attack happened in March 2023. Since then, Birney has failed to appear at court twice.Read more
Ian Dinham and Brian (Anthony) Pearce, Terriermen for the Weston and Banwell with West Somerset Hunt
Ian Dinham - guilty of assault and ordered to pay £2472. Brian Pearce - guilty of assault and intent to cause harm, harassment and fear under section 4 of the public disorder act and fined £1607.
The attack on sabs from Somerset Hunt Sabs took place in November 2023, with a sab being punched and hit with a shovel.Read more
Huntsman Edward ‘Mikey’ Bell & Whipper-in Adam Egginton, West Norfolk Foxhounds
Both men received fines of £1700 each for illegal hunting.
After a three-day trial, the professional huntsman and whipper-in of the West Norfolk Foxhounds were found guilty on two counts each of hunting foxes. The incidents took place in Tittleshall on the 8th and Hingham on the 20th February 2023Read more
Robert Cundy, terrierman for the Essex & Suffolk Hunt
£100 fine, £85 costs and a £45 victim surcharge for breaking a Community Protection Notice (CPN).
Cundy was given a CPN for repeatedly driving his quad bike at monitors from Suffolk Action For Wildlife.Read more
Greg Baker, Huntsman of the Llandeilo Farmers Hunt
20 weeks prison, suspended for 2 years for causing suffering to animals.
Sentenced to 20 weeks prison, suspended for 2 years, 150 hours of unpaid work plus a £150 surcharge after being found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a number of animals.The offenses came to light following police and RSPCA raids on hunt kennels in January 2023.
Read more
John Partridge, Grove and Rufford Hunt supporter
Received a two-year community order for criminal damage and possession of a knife.
As part of the community order, the judge ordered him to attend 20 rehabilitation sessions and handed him an electronically monitored curfew confining him to his home address each evening for eight weeks. The judge also ordered Partridge to pay £390 compensation. Partridge armed himself with a knife, balaclava and slashed the tyres of Sheffield Hunt Sabs.Read more
Charlie Mayo, Blackmore & Sparkford Vale Hunt
Guilty of Actual Bodily Harm against a hunt sab. Compensation only.
The jury unanimously found Mayo guilty of ABH against a sab in December 2021 and he was ordered to pay a substantial amount of court costs and compensation to the victim, avoiding a custodial sentence. The sab suffered a 3cm laceration to the scalp, requiring hospital treatment.Read more
Matthew Wilkinson, Huntsman for the Jed Forest Hunt
Charged with multiple hunting offences under the new Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023.
David Every from the Berwickshire Hunt has also been questioned by police in regards to illegal hunting under the new law.Read more
Robert and Jack Mills, Kent Hounds
Banned from keeping animals for two counts of causing suffering to an animal.
Robert and Jack Mills, of Elham near Canterbury, were terriermen for the Kent Hounds and before the recent amalgamations in the region, the East Kent Hunt with West Street.The offenses came to light following police and RSPCA raids on hunt kennels in January 2023.
Read more
Chris Woodward, former Wynnstay Hunt Huntsman
Convicted of illegally hunting a fox and ordered to pay a fine & costs totalling £1,375.
The judge told the court he was an experienced huntsman who knew his pack and had “deliberately allowed them to pursue the fox.” The incident took place in January 2023.Read more
Steve Pinn, Weston & Banwell Hunt
£757 fine, £303 surcharge and £150 costs for assault by beating.
Pinn assaulted a Somerset Hunt Sab while he was on his way to conceal the body of a fox that the hounds had just killed and ripped to shreds.The incident took place on 28th January 2023.
Read more
Oliver Thompson, Former Old Berkshire Huntsman
20-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, 300 hours of unpaid work, and costs of £2,500 for two separate Section 4 Animal Welfare Act charges.
The court also 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 incidents were all said to have taken place in 2020.
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Stuart Radbourne, Former Huntsman of the Avon Vale Hunt
18 weeks custody, suspended for 12 months, a £750 fine and 200 hours of unpaid work for causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
Radbourne “jointly concerned with others, did cause unnecessary suffering to a fox”. The incident took place on Christmas Eve 2020.Read more
Chris Mardles, former whipper-in at the Pytchley with Woodland Hunt
Sentenced to 18 months in jail for a Section 20 wounding offence against a sab in 2020. Mardles will also spend 12 months on strict licence once his prison sentence is served.
Mardles charged his horse into the sab, leaving him lying on the ground in agonising pain. An air ambulance was required to rush the sab to hospital. The incident took place in September 2020.Read more
Ollie Finnegan, former Huntsman of the Cheshire Hounds
Fined £1000 and given a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order for two counts of illegal hunting.
Finnegan was fined the maximum amount – £1000 – for each of the two offenses and must pay court costs. He was also given a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order including one sanction stating that he cannot hunt with more than 10 hounds. Sadly, this sanction is meaningless as Finnegan has fled to Ireland where fox hunting is legal. Finnegan’s crimes follow his December 2022 Hunting Act convictions dating from his time at the Quorn Hunt.Read more
Christopher Woodward, former Wynnstay Huntsman
£500 fine plus £200 victim surcharge and £85 costs for interfering with a badger sett contrary to the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.
In February 2023 huntsman Christopher Woodward and whipper-in Charlie Young were caught red-handed blocking the badger sett near Whitchurch, North Wales, in preparation for the following day’s hunting in the area.Read more
Christopher Woodward, former Wynnstay Huntsman
Sentenced to 200 hours of community service, pay compensation and court costs for using threatening/abusive/insulting words/behaviour with intent to cause fear of/provoke unlawful violence. Woodward also lost his firearms license
The incident took place in January 2023, when Woodward rode his horse at a Cheshire Monitor and threatened to kill him.Read more
Aaron Fookes (L) and Stuart Radbourne (R) both from the former Avon Vale Hunt.
Fookes: Guilty of an Animal Welfare Act and Hunting Act offence
Radbourne: Guilty of a Hunting Act offence, for throwing a live fox to hounds and pursuing a second fox.
The incident took place in December 2022.
Aaron Fookes received an 18-month Community Order, 200 hours of unpaid work for an Animal Welfare Act offence, and was fined £833 for a Hunting Act Offence. Also costs of £42.50 and a £330 surcharge.
Stuart Radbourne, who only faced Hunting Act charges for his role, fined £384, £42.50 costs and £154 surcharge.
A third defendant, Alex Warden was due to appear in Salisbury Magistrates charged with Animal Welfare and Hunting Act offences, however the case was subsequently dropped by the CPS.
Read more
Fookes went on to attack sabs in December 2023
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Angela Jarrom, Cottesmore Hunt
6 month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, 100 hours of community service and pay compensation for ABH.
The attack took place in October 2022 near the Leicestershire village of Knossington.As sabs were keeping up with the hunt in the grounds of the Ladywood Estate, Jarrom was overheard saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll get them”, before jumping into the car – owned by ex-Cottesmore master Richard Hunnisett – and racing down the road, deliberately running into a hunt sab at high speed.
Read more
Ian Jones, Wynnstay Hunt Supporter
Received an 18-month conditional discharge. Jones must also pay £135 court costs for using threatening or abusive words or behaviour that would cause harassment, alarm or distress to his victim in a racially aggravated incident.
The incident took place in February 2023.Read more
Shaun Parish, Huntsman of the Fitzwilliam Hunt
Fined £421 for illegally hunting a fox.
The offence took place near the Cambridgeshire village of Barnack in March 2022, during which a fox was dug out from their underground hiding place and flushed out to the hunt’s pack of hounds.Hunt sabs were present and recorded the whole incident.
Read more
Edward Bell, Adam Egginton and Andrew Kendall of the Norfolk Hunt
Charged with three counts of criminal damage to a property, two counts of owning or being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and two counts of hunting a wild mammal with dogs on 8th and 20th February 2023.
The three men were charged with multiple hunting offences after a pack of hounds killed a fox on a family’s patio which was captured on CCTV.
Read more
Mark Harris, Terrierman for the Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt
Found guilty under the Protection of Badgers Act after Devon County sabs caught terriermen digging out a badger sett.
The incident happened on 27 November 2021. Harris submitted that hounds under control of the huntsman Guy Morlock had chased a fox to ground and that he was instructed to flush and kill that fox. Harris said he knew there was a litter of foxes in the area on that day.”
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Hartley Crouch, former whipper-in for the Pytchley Hunt
Crouch was found guilty of theft and was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £775 in costs, £150 in compensation for stealing and killing a sheep.
The incident took place on 13th March 2022. Crouch shot dead another member of the hunt’s pet sheep. He then skinned it and fed it to the hounds.
Read more
Daniel Cherriman, Huntsman of the South Shropshire Hunt
Pleaded guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs, contrary to the Hunting Act 2004. Magistrates fined Cherriman £607, as well as ordering him to pay £135 in court costs and a £61 victim surcharge.
The incident took place in November 2021 when National Trust members filmed the South Shropshire Hunt illegally hunting a fox and trespassing on land which is owned by the National Trust. The video shows Cherriman encouraging his hounds onto a fox and then doing nothing to stop them when they hunt the animal.Read more
David Thomas, Master & Huntsman of the Dwyryd Foxhounds
Convicted of animal cruelty charges and sentenced to 24 weeks in prison. Banned from keeping any animal for ten years.
The conviction comes as a result of covert footage obtained by the LACS, showing Thomas and his son, Carwyn Fazakerley, kicking and abusing terrified foxhounds. Jordan Houlsten, the hunt terrier man, was also sentenced to 20 weeks and received a ban on keeping dogs for 8 years.Read more
Thomas – who vowed from the outset to ignore the Hunting Act – was already sentenced to 22 weeks imprisonment in 2018 for running a badger baiting ring, which the RSPCA described as “coordinated and carefully planned cruelty, involving dogs, badgers and foxes.”
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Benedict Hood, Huntsman of the Seavington Hunt
Pleaded guilty to hunting a ‘bagged’ fox
Hood’s conviction follows a police investigation after footage of the incident was passed to the Hunt Saboteurs Association by a member of the public.The footage shows a terrierman lifting a sack – containing the fox – from a box on his quad bike. Hood holds the pack of hounds back, before urging them forward as the terrierman tips the poor fox from the sack.
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Ben Porter, terrierman of the Herefordshire and Clifton Hunt
Found guilty on all counts for:
- Failure to stop after an accident
- Failure to report an accident
- Driving with undue care and attention, causing injury
- No insurance
- Incorrect licence (too many passengers on quad bike)
- No Mot
- Driving an unregistered quad bike on a public road
Sentenced to 120 hours community service over 12 months, a fine of £350 and a further £200 costs. The charges related to an incident on 5th March 2022, when Porter intentionally drove his quad bike at speed at a hunt sab. The sab suffered a huge haematoma and was at risk of a blood clot.
Read more
Paul O’Shea, terrier man with the East Essex Hunt
Received an 18 week prison sentence suspended for a year and banned from keeping dogs for 5 years for capturing and stabbing a fox with a pitchfork, finally killing it.
O’Shea was captured by a hidden camera planted by North London Hunt Saboteurs in December 2021.Read more
Rhys Davies, gamekeeper for the Millden Estate which hosts grouse shoots
Jailed for eight months and banned for keeping dogs for 15 years.
Davies kept numerous trophy photos of dogs he used to fight and bait wild animals. Davies has been jailed for eight months, and banned for keeping dogs for 15 years. He was caught after a staff member flagged the images to the Scottish SPCA who launched an investigation.Read more
Charles Carter, Huntsman of the Royal Artillery Hunt
Avoided Hunting Act charges due to a technicality.
Video footage captured by Salisbury Plain Monitors in October 2021 showed Charles Carter illegally hunting at Larkhill, Wiltshire (MOD land). Despite the CPS confirming there were strong grounds to prosecute, the MOD Police missed the file submission date by one day. This is one of many incidents of illegal hunting witnessed on MOD land.Read more
Nathan Bowes and Seward Folland, former terriermen of the Eggesford Hunt
Found guilty of interfering with an active badger sett. Bowes was convicted of two offences, and fined £940, Folland was fined a total of £732 for one offence.
The incident took place on 23 November 2019. Witnesses for the prosecution alleged that they had seen the Eggesford Hunt in the area around the time of the incident, and that they had heard the hounds hunting a fox to ground. On reaching the scene, they found Bowes and Folland with nets covering several holes to the entrance to the badger sett, and with others having been blocked in. It was accepted by the pair that their intention was to dig out a fox from underground.Read more
Sam Staniland, former Huntsman, and William Tatler, former Joint Master, both of the Meynell and South Staffordshire Hunt
Pleaded guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs, contrary to the Hunting Act 2004
Sam Staniland: Fined £350 fine and £185 court costs.William Tatler: Fined £350 fine and £185 court costs
The incident took place at Spath Covert, in Sutton-on-the-Hill, in Derbyshire, 2nd October 2018.
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Mark Vincent and Ian Parkinson, terriermen for the Kimblewick Hunt
Found guilty of releasing a captive fox to be chased and hunted by hounds.
The footage was filmed on New Years Day 2019 when the hunt met at Moreton, Thame, Oxon. It shows the hunt terrier men using draining rods to force the fox, that they’ve been holding captive, out of a drainage pipe then being thrown into the wood for hounds to chase. The pair received 12 week prison sentences, suspended for 1 year, and community service after being found guilty of keeping a fox captive and inflicting suffering upon it in breach of the Animal Welfare Act.The terriermen can clearly be heard communicating with the huntsman agreeing when the best time is to release the fox ,which is given a brief head start so that the hunt riders experience a chase rather than a quick kill.
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Jamie Barnes, Nottingham
Found guilty of two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to dogs.
Nottingham Magistrates Court heard that one of the dogs had ” a deformed and twisted jaw with missing lips and gums” – having been sent down fox holes.
The court was told that Barnes used the terriers for hunting foxes. The charges related to a Patterdale terrier named Ronnie on February 22, 2014 and a Patterdale called Striker between March 1, 2014 and April 30, 2014.
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