CONVICTED (2016) | horse trader Peter Ash, born 9 September 1958, of Charles Street, Landport, Portsmouth PO1 1JD – failed to get vet treatment for sick horses in his care; three horses later died
Heartless Peter Ash sentenced his sick animals to a life of misery because he refused to get them essential veterinary treatment.
Ash, who sold horses to the traveling community under the name Peter Ash Gypsy Cobs, was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to five equines.
RSPCA inspectors found the animals in a poor condition, with some emaciated and others with diarrhoea.
One had a weeping eye, and another had dental disease and needed urgent veterinary care.
The court heard there were up to 80 horses in the field. Five were found to be in such a poor condition they were seized from Ash and are the basis of charges. Three of these died.
Sentencing, district judge Peter Greenfield said: ‘It seems to me that when under pressure as a commercial enterprise you were doing anything to avoid paying the money for treatment, almost like there was an acceptable attrition rate.’
He added Ash did not spend money on treatment for red worm, which can strike horses in a short time, ‘based on profit’ of his business.
Ash kept the animals at Braishfield, near Romsey in Hampshire. The court ordered that he will still be allowed to transport and trade horses. He was deprived of the four horses still in RSPCA care – two of which were the foals of the adult horses at the time they were removed.
Sentence: 12-week prison sentence, suspended for two years; 300 hours of unpaid work; fined £1,500. Disqualified from owning, keeping and being involved with the care of any horses for five years (expired April 2021).
CONVICTED (2015) | puppy farmer John Watson Harrop (aka Johnboy Harrop), born c. 1980, of Green Lane Travellers Site, Bishop Auckland, Durham DL14 8RS – kept dozens of dogs and puppies in “vile” and “disgusting” conditions.
Police and the RSPCA visited Hostel Farm, in Addison Road, Toronto, near Bishop Auckland DL14 7RN, on 3 April 2014 and found a large number of animals causing concern.
Harrop with wife Amanda
Serial animal abuser Harrop, who in 2013 was jailed and banned from keeping horses for 10 years, admitted three charges of failing to take reasonable steps to ensure that the needs of the animals were met under the Animal Welfare Act.
Pony-tailed Harrop, who comes from a family of travellers, watched as Darlington magistrates were shown a video of the scene with commentary from RSPCA Inspector Caz Doe.
She described ferrets in cages full of faeces and waste, surrounded by bits of wood with nails sticking out.
A large dog – said to be a central Asian Shepherd dog – was housed in a “quite disgusting and completely unsafe” building.
More dogs, including a saluki, lurchers and spaniels, were kept in “vile” conditions with no clean, dry flooring and everything sodden with urine and waste.
Inspector Doe said in the video: “The dogs are just living in a sewer of their own waste.”
Prosecuting, Kevin Campbell said vets determined that the animals were not being kept in a suitably hygienic environment, which could ultimately have resulted in infectious diseases.
Simon Walker, for Harrop said there were 65 dogs, including some puppies on the farm premises, and 13 were removed.
Another member of the family, Jim Harrop, born July 1977, also of Green Lane Caravan Site, had a number of animal welfare charges against him dismissed with no evidence offered. He had denied the offences.
Sentencing | 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work. Five-year ban on keeping dogs (expired 2020).
CONVICTED (2014) | Robert James Mcaleenan, born c. 1959, and son Conor Mcaleenan, born 21 February 1986, of 210 Lisnevenagh Road, Antrim BT41 2JT – jailed for a catalogue of animal cruelty offences against dozens of horses, ponies and donkeys
Robert and Conor Mcaleenan were jailed for allowing horses and ponies to suffer horrifically
Travellers Robert and Conor Mcaleenan were jailed after police discovered a ‘scene of horror’ at their farm, with decomposing dead horses among those still alive.
The case was triggered by a tip-off from a member of the public. The scene that confronted vets and PSNI officers on November 22, 2011, was one of horror.
Conor Mcaleenan
Cruel horse traders Robert and Conor Mcaleenan from Antrim
They were faced with an overpowering stench of dead animals which had been dumped in a heap on the farm, with numerous other standing around in filth, starving and left to fend for themselves.
Conor Mcaleenan
One vet said: “The scale of what I saw was unbelievably large. The father and son had fundamentally failed to protect the animals, failed to address the most basic health and husbandry requirements.
“Some of the animals were in such a pitiful state of suffering that they had to be euthanised on humane grounds.”
Robert Mcaleenan
Judge Desmond Marrinan told the Mcaleenans: “This is one of the worst cases of animal cruelty that I have encountered and you should be thoroughly ashamed of your callous behaviour.”
The judge said he was unimpressed by the men’s defence and found no substance in claims the pair had not set out to deliberately cause suffering or distress to the animals.
He told the court the case photographs were “horrific… almost unbelievable”, and said: “The evidence bore testimony to the fact they treated these poor animals in a pitiless manner without the slightest regard for their welfare. In my view they are unfit to be carers for any animal.”
Sentencing: Conor Mcaleenan, who had owned the animals, was jailed for 14 months.
Robert James Mcaleenan, who owns the farm between Antrim and Ballymena, was given nine months.
The pair were banned from keeping animals for 25 years.
In January 2018 the Mcaleenans reappeared in court accused of breaching their ban on keeping animals. The outcome of their latest court case is unknown, however.
#MostEvil | Amersham horse trader James John Gray (05/09/1963), wife Julie Cordelia Gray (24/05/1967) and daughters Jodie June Gray (12/09/1982) and Cordelia Gray (29/05/1988) and James Gray junior (23/01/1993) – left more than 100 horses, ponies and donkeys to starve among the rotting carcasses of other animals
Clockwise from top left: James Gray Sr, Julie Gray, Cordelia Gray, Jodie Gray, court protestors, James Gray Jr
In a case veterinary expert witness described as the worst case of animal cruelty they had ever seen, 31 equines were found dead at Spindle Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, Amersham. Some 111 other horses, ponies and donkeys were rescued.
The massive rescue was co-ordinated by Thames Valley Police, Trading Standards and the RSPCA with help from the Horse Trust, the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH), Redwings Horse Sanctuary and the Blue Cross
James Gray Sr is banned for life from keeping equine animals
Hooves and body parts of horses that had been left to die were scattered around and a grotesque mound made up of bones and skulls was discovered.
The horror scene was uncovered when RSPCA inspectors were called to the farm, where a horse-trading business run by the Gray family was based.
James Gray Jr
There were 140 animals at the farm and many were left with little food or dry bedding, were crammed into pens and ankle-deep in their own faeces.
Jodie Gray, aka Jodie Keet, with son Tommy Gray
In total 115 animals, some severely emaciated, had to be rescued and removed from the farm during a huge operation in January 2009.
Robert Seabrook QC told the court how two RSPCA inspectors visiting the farm in January 2008 were confronted with a “grotesque and distressing state of affairs”.
He said a number of horses were discovered in “disgusting pens”, some were tethered individually and others were loose in the paddocks.
The most extraordinary aspect he said was that many horses were next to carcasses in varying states of decomposition and the smell of rotting flesh was “over-powering”.
He added: “A number of animals that were found had plainly been dead for a number of days and as it turns out, some for many months.”
Julie Gray
The court heard in one pen three severed hooves were found alongside the bodies of two other horses.
James Gray Sr was convicted of nine charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals and two charges of failing to protect animals from pain, injury, suffering and disease.
His son James Gray Jr was convicted of identical charges although two were later overturned on appeal.
Gray’s wife, Julie, and daughters Cordelia and Jodie were found guilty of the two charges of failing to protect the animals.
No member of the family showed any sign of emotion as the judge passed sentence.
RSPCA inspector Kirsty Hampton described the conditions the horses were kept in as “grotesque”.
Speaking after the sentencing, Hampton said: “The RSPCA is pleased the district judge has recognised the extent of the cruelty, neglect and the suffering endured by the animals in this case.
“We see the disqualifications from keeping horses as an effective measure to prevent animals suffering in future.”
Sentencing: James Gray Sr was sentenced to six months in prison and banned from keeping horses, ponies and donkeys for life. He was also ordered to pay £400,000. Gray was given a further two months after absconding from court. Two of Gray’s convictions were overturned in 2010, but Gray was ordered to pay £600,000 towards the RSPCA’s legal costs and faced financial ruin. A later appeal against what Gray claimed were disproportionate legal costs was rejected.
James Gray Junior was given an 18-month supervision order. He was banned from keeping equines for 10 years with right of appeal after five (ban expired June 2019).
Julie, Jodie and Cordelia Gray were each given 150 hours of community service. They were also banned from keeping equines for 10 years, with the right of appeal after five (bans expired June 2019).
Julie Gray was ordered to pay £750 in costs, and Cordelia Gray and Jodie Gray £500 each.
James Gray and Cordelia Gray, 57 Narcot Road, Chalfont St Giles HP8 4DF Julie Cordelia Gray, 15 Weller Road, Amersham HP6 6LQ James Gray Jr, Chalk Hill Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, Amersham HP6 5SA Jodie June Gray (also known as Jodie Keet), 14 Middle Meadow, Chalfont St Giles HP8 4QS
Update September 2021
The Bucks Free Press reported that James Gray was let off £200,000-worth of fines due to bankruptcy.
Gray was ordered to pay more than £1million in fines and court costs and has served jail time since he was convicted of multiple animal welfare offences in 2008.
He attempted to appeal the convictions at London’s High Court in 2013, but although two of his 11 original convictions were overturned, he was ultimately unsuccessful and had another £200,000 added to his legal bill.
In August 2021, Gray, of 57 Narcot Road in Chalfont St Giles, had £223,453-worth of fines written off.
Documents attached to the court listing state that the amount was remitted due to Gray being bankrupt, having served prison time, and the RSPCA refusing the money.
In 2014, Gray was hauled back before the courts and was jailed for four-and-a-half years after he fleeced pensioners out of thousands of pounds for cowboy building works.
In an attempt to raise funds to pay off his fines and court costs, Gray conned an 88-year-old former British Library academic out of £20,000 for work which experts valued at just £150.
He drained £18,000 out of another 80-year-old victim’s account, leaving him with just £300 after repeatedly demanding money from him. This victim died just months after the money was found to be missing.
Gray, who had done this work under the fake name ‘Joseph De Paula’, admitted two counts of fraud by false representation before he was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court.
We collate data on animal cruelty convictions in the UK
