On the 9th of June 2026, two members of the South Shropshire Hunt (now called the Shropshire Hunt), William Hand and Toby Holley, appeared at Telford Magistrates Court accused of interfering with a badger sett contrary to section 3 of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.
Previously Dave Conde, another terrierman for the hunt, pleaded guilty to the same offence at the very same sett, he was fined £845 and you can read about that here
The charges relate to covert camera footage of the pair blocking badger setts for the then South Shropshire Hunt. The footage, passed to the HSA, shows hunt terrierman William Hand blocking an active badger sett with a spade on the morning of 13th January 2024 while Holley looks on. Hand has been caught on camera blocking setts and using terriers before, this was also exposed by the HSA and can be viewed here.
Later in the footage hounds are seen in the woodland alongside huntsman Daniel Cherriman, who has previously been convicted of illegal fox hunting.
Cherriman is seen on another hidden camera at an artificial fox earth nearby. He appears to look down at the pipe entrances, aware of their existence, then calls his hounds to him with hunting horn calls. Hand and Holley can also be seen visiting the same artificial earth and taking great interest in it, after blocking the nearby badger sett on the 13th of January.
Artificial earths mimic fox earths and are built by hunts to encourage foxes. They are designed so a terrier can be put through to ‘flush’ a fox out to nets or to hounds. Under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 it is also an offence to interfere with a badger sett, which can include, among other things, ‘obstructing access to, or any entrance of, a badger sett’.
The job of terriermen is to trap foxes above ground on the day of the hunt. They achieve this by visiting all known fox earths, badger setts, and other potential refuges before the hunt and ‘flushing’ and then ‘stopping’ them – filling them in – with earth or other material.
Unfortunately, the Crown Prosecution Service despite the amount of evidence given to them, had to offer no evidence in court which was farcical. The fact that they did not engage an expert of their own to counter the pro hunt report by Stephen Lomax was a major failure and gifted Hand and Holley a Not Guilty verdict.
A Hunt Saboteurs Association spokesperson commented,
“It’s obvious hunting with hounds is still happening. You don’t need to flush foxes, or block badger setts at a trail hunt. The recent consultation into banning ‘trail hunting’ closed on the 18th of June and hopefully, this time, we will get a watertight ban.”
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