© 2024 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
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
Terrier men Ian Dinham and Brian (Anthony) Pearce from the Weston and Banwell 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.
Read more
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
Read more
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.”
Read more
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.”
Read more
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.
Read more
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
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.
Read more
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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