Category Archives: hunts

Dogs, foxes, hunting with dogs, hunts, Wildlife Crime / Bloodsports

Ashbourne, Derbyshire / Tutbury, Staffordshire: Johnny Greenall and Glen Morris

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CONVICTED (2012) | Meynell and South Staffordshire hunt master John Edward Greenall, born July 1960 of Wootton Hall Estate, Wootton, Ellastone, Ashbourne DE6 2GW, and hunt field member Glen Morris, born c. 1969, of Ludgate Street, Tutbury, Burton-on-Trent DE13 9NG – illegally hunted fox cubs with hounds.

Johnny Greenall (right) and Glen Morris pictured outside court
Johnny Greenall (right) and Glen Morris pictured outside court

Greenall, son of the Baron of Daresbury, and hunt employee Morris were secretly filmed by anti-hunt protesters trying to kill foxes near Hilton in Staffordshire.

Both men denied breaching the Hunting Act but were both convicted.

Footage played in court showed members of the Meynell and South Staffordshire Hunt surrounding a wood at Suffield Farm in Sutton on the Hill in October 2011.

The hounds entered the wood to hunt young foxes in a sport known as ‘cubbing’.

One fleeing fox was scared back into the wood by the surrounding huntsmen who were clapping their hands.

Hunting foxes with dogs was made illegal in the 2004 Hunting Act.

Johnny Greenall. Picture: Facebook

Summing up, the judge said: “The evidence that Greenall was the hunt master is not in dispute nor is the fact that he was there that day.

“Greenall gave an innocent explanation as to why he was there in his police interview. But he has chosen not to give evidence in front of me.

“This is because the evidence would not stand up to any scrutiny.”

Tim Bonner, from the Countryside Alliance, was disappointed with the ruling. He said: “I am surprised at the verdict when there is no evidence in which foxes are shown to be pursued, let alone being caught by the hounds.”

Steve Harris, head of enforcement at The League Against Cruel Sports, said: “We are very pleased that Derbyshire Police thoroughly investigated this case and that the Crown Prosecution Service were willing to allow a court to decide on who was telling the truth.”

Sentencing | Greenall was fined £3,515 and Morris was ordered to pay £515.

Wildlife Guardian

Update October 2012

The not so honourable Johnny Greenall stepped down from his role as chairman of The Meynell & South Staffordshire Hunt, citing the court case as his reason.

Source: North West Hunt Saboteurs

Additional Information

Johnny Greenall owns the Duncombe Arms pub/restaurant in Main Road, Ellastone, Ashbourne DE6 2GZ with wife Laura Greenall.

Their son, former jockey Jack Greenall, owns the Pheasant Inn in Hungerford, Reading.

animal fighting / baiting, badger baiting, Dogs, foxes, hunting with dogs, hunts, Organised Animal Crime, Serial Animal Abusers, Wildlife Crime / Bloodsports

Knottingley / Wetherby, West Yorkshire: Mark Tiffin, Ben Galsworthy and Neil Burlingham

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CONVICTED (2011) | wildlife persecutors Mark Anthony Tiffin, born 2 September 1990, of 79 Downland Crescent, Knottingley WF11 0EJ, Ben Scott Lloyd Galsworthy, born 26 February 1978, of 1 Derwent Place, Knottingley WF11 0NL and Neil Burlingham, born c. 1975, of Clifford in Wetherby – caught hunting with dogs.

Mark Tiffen (left) and Ben Galsworthy

The trio, who were represented by Clive Rees, were found guilty of hunting a wild mammal with a dog but walked free from court with a conditional discharge.

All three men were arrested in Gateforth, Selby, in January 2010 after members of Selby Badger Watch reported seeing three men with dogs and shovels close to a badger sett which they were monitoring. The men denied they were hunting a wild mammal with a dog.

When not terrorising wildlife, Tiffin participates in bareknuckle boxing matches

Tiffin told the court he had travelled with the other two men to look for rabbits, then to Hambleton Hough to “get rats out of mounds of muck”, before one of the dogs had run away.

The judge told the men that their stories were inconsistent whilst witnesses for the prosecution were credible and concise.

Tiffin, who at the time of his conviction was serving a 12-month prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving, received a two-year conditional discharge.

Galsworthy and Burlingham also received two-year conditional discharges, and were ordered to pay costs of £500 each.

The two dogs, which had been examined by a vet at a cost of £2,092 were confiscated by the police but were later taken from the kennels by persons unknown.

Wildlife Guardian

Additional Information

Mark Tiffin was due to appear at Selby Magistrates Court on 24th March 2011 charged with being present at an animal fight. It is alleged that Tiffin used his mobile phone to record images of the animal fight and he faces a number of charges relating to this incident. Unfortunately no further details are available

Source: York Anti-Hunt League

Tiffin reportedly works as a ‘terrierman’ with the combined York and Ainsty South/Badsworth & Bramham Moor Hunt. Members of the York Anti-Hunt League took photographs of Tiffin, whose official role is to mend fences and open gates, during a “cubbing” meet.

Source: York Anti-Hunt League

He was pictured on a quad bike with spades clearly visible on the front of the vehicle. One disturbing image captured Tiffin literally with blood on his hands.

animal fighting / baiting, Dogs, foxes, hunting with dogs, hunts, Organised Animal Crime, Wildlife Crime / Bloodsports

Bampton Grange, Cumbria: Alistair Robinson

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CONVICTED (2010) | huntsman Alistair Thomas Robinson, born April 1962, of 1 Essendy House, Bampton Grange, Penrith CA10 2QR – flushed a fox from her den and beat her to death with a stick.

Robinson denied using dogs to hunt a fox but was convicted after a trial.

League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) members Ed Shephard and Paul Tillsey showed the court film footage of Robinson’s actions as an Ullswater Foxhounds ‘drag’ hunt passed Hartsop on October 26, 2009. The film showed the defendant take a fox from the ground where his two terriers had been running in tunnels.

The hunt was intended to be a legal ‘drag’, where dogs follow a scent planted by members. Robinson was filmed putting his black terrier into a hole in the area where a fox had been spotted.

Oliver King, prosecuting, said Robinson was seen by LACS members digging with a stick in the area where the fox had run underground, after the hunt moved on.

Robinson later admitted, in interview, he had killed the animal and buried her carcass in a dry stone wall, where LACS members later retrieved it. He claimed he did not intend to use dogs to kill the animal.

A post-mortem examination on the vixen was carried out by Stephen Harris at Bristol University. The examination revealed she had been attacked for ‘a prolonged period’ by dogs and received extensive injuries. The court heard that there were bite wounds to the fox’s face and she had a partially crushed skull.

Stephen Welford, defending, said Robinson had only sent his terrier underground to help track and bring out a four-year-old dog that had accidentally escaped its lead and run in.

When interviewed by Cumbria police, after his arrest, Robinson said: “The fox was in a bit of a state, so I gave it a couple of knocks to finish it off. It wouldn’t have survived.”

Sentencing | fined £250, ordered to pay £900 costs and a £15 surcharge.

Wildlife Guardian
Westmorland Gazette