CONVICTED (2016) | Claire Louise Hopkins, born c. 1972, of Tukes Avenue, Gosport PO13 0SD – left three horses unattended for two weeks, during which one horse died
Hopkins admitted three offences over three horses kept at Newgate Lane, Fareham. Molly in the stable in Newgate Lane, Fareham.
Left stabled and neglected for around two or three weeks in the spring, the three horses, Phoebe, Fred and Molly, were left to fend for themselves.
Following a call from a concerned member of the public, RSPCA inspectors found that Phoebe had died, her body remaining with Fred. Molly was so emaciated that she was close to death and was later found to be in-foal.
“It was horrendous,” explained RSPCA inspector Jenny Ride. “To see a deceased horse basically rotting away and another not long from death must have been mental and physical torture.”
Fred, Molly, and her foal, Bluebell, have now been successfully rehomed, all in the same place.
Sentence: eight-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months, 20 days of rehabilitation activities; £300 fine and an order to repay the vet costs of £274.80. Banned from keeping horses for just three years (expired November 2019).