CONVICTED (2012) | Javed Jahangir, born 05/06/1983, of 43 Milton Road, Chesham HP5 2ET and Sajid Mahmood, born 01/03/1983, formerly of Batchelors Way, Chesham and as of 2019 of 23 Victoria Road, Tipton, West Midlands DY4 8SN – admitted a series of offences relating to illegal dog fighting
Sajid Mahmood and a still from shocking video footage of two dogs fighting, which was taken from a video found on a computer
Javed Jahangir and Sajid Mahmood were both jailed for offences the RSPCA described as “one of the most premeditated and barbaric forms of deliberate animal cruelty”.
A raid on Jahangir’s home in Milton Road led to officers finding a pitbull terrier-type dog – a breed banned by the Dangerous Dogs Act – and a computer containing footage showing the two men fighting dogs in fields thought to be close to their homes.
2-17 police mugshot of Sajid Mahmood
Habitual criminal Mahmood, who has previous convictions for violent street robbery and car theft was identified from the footage and this led to the RSPCA searching further properties in Chesham that he had links to.
There, officers found another pit bull terrier-type dog, muzzles, leads, computers, phones, cameras and media storage devices – all of which were seized.
Jahangir admitted four offences linked to animal fighting and one of having an illegal dog, while Mahmood pleaded guilty to three fighting-related charges and to having an illegal dog.
The operation to bring the pair to justice was a joint one between the RSPCA and Thames Valley Police.
Chief inspector Mike Butcher, of the RSPCA’s special operations unit, said: “Dog fighting is one of the most premeditated and barbaric forms of deliberate animal cruelty. We are delighted that all of those who have been brought to justice have so far been given bans on keeping animals.
“Hopefully the combination of the bans and the custodial sentences will send a clear message to anyone who is involved in dog fighting, or is thinking about taking part.”
The Chiltern district’s area commander Chief Inspector Ian Hunter said: “This case came about as a result of concerns raised to police by local residents. I hope that today’s result shows that not only have we taken those concerns seriously, but that we and the RSPCA have used all the powers at our disposal to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice.
“This type of inhumane offence will not be tolerated by Thames Valley Police. I would urge anyone with information about this type of illegal activity to come forward and speak to police or the RSPCA immediately.”
Sentencing: jailed for 20 weeks; Jahangir was ordered to pay £5,000 in prosecution costs and Mahmood £1,500. Both men were banned from keeping animals for life.
Clockwise from top left: Ian Draper, Danny Draper, Laura Borrow and Katy Davies
The despicable activities of gypsies Ian Draper and son Danny Draper were uncovered after Ian Draper’s ex-wife Sharon took a terrier named Bridget to a veterinary practice to be treated. The painfully thin dog had been so desperate for food she had swallowed her own collar. The vet tipped off the RSPCA who investigated.
At Danny Draper’s home inspectors found several bull-terrier dogs in an emaciated condition. One dog was so starved that he had eaten his collar.
Danny Draper is pictured with a dog before a fight
All of the dogs were scarred and some had broken teeth and injured tails.
Equipment used for training fighting dogs, including a treadmill, was also discovered, along with a video showing two dogs tearing each other apart.
More dogs were found at Ian Draper’s home. He was given a three-month custodial sentence in 2005 for similar offences, and was serving a ten-year ban on keeping animals at the time of the offences.
Swindon Crown Court was shown footage of one fight in which the Drapers are heard cheering a dog named Ozzy. It was so horrific Judge Simon Cooper asked for it to be turned off after a minute.
Officials also found a break-stick with several teeth marks on used to wedge into the jaws of fighting dogs to separate them.
The Drapers kept notes of the dogs’ training regimes as they hardened them for bouts lasting up to 40 minutes, on which punters made huge bets.
Starving and injured ‘fighting’ dogs were kept in squalor at the Drapers’ homes in Oxfordshire
The pair often held practice fights. Their dogs had even featured in a dog-fighting magazine. The animals were trained to attack wounds or the neck and face, often resulting in lips being ripped off.
Danny Draper pleaded guilty to five charges including possession of items in connection with an animal fight, while his father pleaded guilty to seven charges.
The men’s then girlfriends Laura Borrow (left) and Katy Davies pictured outside court
The men’s girlfriends Laura Borrow and Katy Davies were not only aware of their partners’ actions but played a key role in organising dog fights themselves. Davies pleaded guilty to one offence of aiding and abetting Ian Draper. Borrow pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering.
Sentencing: Ian Draper was given a 20-week prison sentence and Danny Draper a 12-week sentence. Ian Draper was also banned from keeping dogs for life after he admitted breaching his previous ban. His son was given a 15-year ban.
Katy Davies was fined £600. Hornsby was ordered to pay £300 in costs and disqualified from keeping dogs.
Danny Draper has changed his name by deed poll to Danny Smith. He and father Ian Draper, who both live at 1 Walkers Close, Asthall, Burford, OX18 4HN, are directors of a courier company called Cotswold Couriers Ltd (possibly now defunct).
Danny and Ian Draper are no longer with Laura Borrow and Katy Davies and both women have gone on to marry other people and take their husbands’ names.
Davies is now Katy Chapman. She lives in Church Lane, Burford OX18 4SD. Laura Borrow was known as Laura Hornsby for a while but is now Laura Saxton. She lives in Moorland Road, Witney OX28 6LT.
CONVICTED (2011) | hare coursers Eddie Cole, born 20 February 1982, and Matthew James Wenman, born 10 June 1986, both of South Oaks Caravan Park, Dorking Road, Chilworth, Guildford GU4 8NS but with links to Rudgwick, Horsham, West Sussex Matthew Giles, born c. 1979, of Hilltops Caravan Park, Stovolds Hill, Cranleigh GU6 8LE, Tony Frenny Giles, born 22 April 1985 of Twin Oaks, Knowle Lane, Cranleigh GU6 8JW and Nelson Hedges, born c. 1987, of Guildford Road, Normandy, Guildford GU3 2AR
Clockwise from bottom left Eddie Cole, Nelson Hedges, Tony Giles, Matthew Wenman, Matthew Giles
A group of illegal hare coursers who drove 150 miles to let their dogs chase hares in north Suffolk were fined and banned from driving in February 2011.
Eddie Cole, Matthew Giles, Tony Giles, Nelson Hedges and Matthew Wenman were each fined £1,000 and banned from driving for 56 days after they pleaded guilty to hunting a wild mammal with a dog.
Magistrates heard the five defendants had driven up from Surrey and Sussex with five dogs on December 12, 2010, and allowed their dogs to chase hares in a field in Flixton, near Bungay.
At least one hare was killed by the pack of dogs, which included a spring spaniel, a terrier and a seven-month-old puppy.
Colette Griffiths, prosecuting said the five men were found by police stretched out in a line as the dogs chased a hare which was killed.
Police had arrived at the field after a farmer in another field had noticed the men acting suspiciously and alerted officers.
In mitigation the court heard the men were all “extremely remorseful” and recognised “the consequences of their actions”.
Sentencing | fined £1,000 each plus £100 court costs.
Nelson Hedges was jailed for two months for dangerous driving after leading a 100mph police chase.
Officers from Cambridgeshire Police suspected Hedges was hare coursing in his silver Mazda Tribute after members of the public reported him.
The force’s Rural Crime Action Team (RCAT) spotted the vehicle, covered in mud and with dogs in the boot, driving through the village of Iselham, Cambs.
Police parked across the road and signalled Hedges to pull over but he swerved round the car, mounting a pavement, and sped off.
He drove at speeds of nearly 100mph in a 40mph zone and darted across two junctions without stopping.
In a bid to evade police capture, he even drove onto a field causing around £200 worth of damage to crops.
He was arrested after his vehicle came to a halt when police blocked it in another field.
Hedges was also disqualified from driving for 19 months, with an extended retest, after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and criminal damage,
#MostEvil | Grant Hurlbert, born January 1984, of Inveravon Drive, Motherwell ML1 3BQ – killed a kitten by slamming him repeatedly onto the floor.
Kitten killer Grant Hurlbert
In December 2010 Grant Hurlbert, who at the time was living in Strood, Kent, killed a 14-week old kitten named Jar Jar by slamming him onto the floor three times.
The kitten had been given to Hurlbert as a gift by his then girlfriend (who went on to have two children with him).
On the evening in question Hurlbert had turned up at her family home while high on drink and drugs. The court heard that he displayed some strange behaviour and at one point rolled around naked on the floor.
A family member heard loud noises coming from the kitchen and went to investigate. He saw Hurlbert “hold the kitten above his head with both hands and throw it hard on the floor”
Jar Jar was seen twitching on the floor and died later from his injuries.
Hurlbert assaulted his girlfriend’s father, as he tried to throw him out. He was arrested some time later.
Hurlbert, who owns scaffolding company Quick Fix Scaffolding Ltd, told police he could not remember the incident.
During Hurlbert’s court appearance in January 2011, the judge told him that drunkenness was no excuse for what was an act of “wanton cruelty”.
Sentencing: 16 weeks in prison for causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and banned from keeping or owning any animal for life. He was also given a total of eight weeks for the two assault charges and a further four weeks for possessing cannabis and causing criminal damage.
CONVICTED (2010) | Julie Carter, born 9 March 1970, of 22 Herald Way, Bicester OX26 4SF – drowned eight of her pet cats one by one in a baby bath at her home.
Over a week, mother-of-one Julie Carter subjected each of the fully grown cats, aged between one and three, to a painful death by holding them under water.
She admitted causing unnecessary suffering by killing the animals between May 25 and June 7, 2010.
The court heard a member of staff at Charter Community Housing visited the house and was struck by the smell of cat urine.
Carter was told she would have to remove some of her 11 cats and clean up the house.
But when RSPCA inspector Doug Davidson went to the premises only three cats were left. Carter later admitted she had killed the other eight.
Defending, Paul Bevan said Carter knew what she had done, but had a “limited degree of understanding”.
He said she had received threats over the case.
Sentencing | 12 weeks in jail. Lifetime ban on all animals.
CONVICTED (2009) | breeder Melanie Jean King, born 10/08/1954, of Station Farm, Station Road, Appledore, Ashford TN26 2DG – kept dozens of dogs in cramped and squalid conditions
Melanie King, formerly of Whents Farm in Teynham, near Sittingbourne, was given a suspended prison sentence, ordered to undertake unpaid work and to pay over £1000 in costs to Swale Council after breaching the conditions of her dog-breeding licence.
She was sentenced at Sittingbourne Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to 24 offences under Section 1 of the Breeding of Dogs Act 1973.
The court was shown a number of images of 40 dogs on her farm kept in cramped and squalid conditions.
Vets inspecting the premises in December 2008 had raised serious concerns about breeding conditions at the establishment.
It was agreed a new licence would be granted to King for a temporary period. This was to allow her time to deal with hygiene issues raised.
But on three further inspections by council officers and the RSPCA between February and March 2009, numerous breaches of the breeding licence were discovered which led to the prosecution.
In sentencing, magistrates told King that had she failed to plead guilty at an early stage, they would have imposed a custodial sentence.
Speaking after sentencing, Swale council’s environmental response manager, Alister Andrews, said: “This conviction is a significant victory not only for us, but also for the animals which were kept at this establishment.”
Sentencing: 140-day suspended prison sentence; 150 hours’ unpaid work; £1,100 costs. Banned for life from breeding dogs, although this was reduced on appeal to just seven years in 2011 (expired).
#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.
CONVICTED (2009) | Shane Walker, born circa 1989, of Addlestone, Surrey repeatedly kicked and stamped on a dog’s head at a railway station.
Career criminal Walker, who went on to commit murder, admitted beating his auntie’s bull terrier Daisy, horrifying onlookers and leaving his pet whimpering.
Walker, then of Bridge Wharf, Chertsey, had been drinking in pubs in Surbiton with his cousin on September 25 2008 and was on his way home when the attack happened at 10pm.
Walker was seen punching, kicking and stamping on the dog, and witnesses were “clearly shocked and disturbed by the incident”.
He told police he had only drunk a few lagers but could not remember hitting the dog, or anything until he woke up in police cells the next morning.
Daisy was taken away from her owner and into the possession of the police on suspicion of being a banned breed. Her fate is unknown.
Defence solicitor John Sellars insisted Walker was only “play fighting” with the dog, but added: “Certainly there was a breach of the peace and he went a bit far.”
He said the dog had no serious injuries and was otherwise in a healthy condition.
Sentencing | Two weeks in custody to run concurrently with a sentence he was already serving for burglary, meaning he served no extra time for the animal cruelty offence. Banned from keeping any animal but allowed to apply to have the order lifted after 12 months.
CONVICTED (2001) | Nadine Marie Trewin, born 29/08/1969, currently (2018) of Forge Road, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1QR – cooked her pet cat in a microwave oven after she was bitten on the leg by a flea
Mother-of-two Nadine Marie Trewer of Crawley microwaved a cat to death while drunk
Mother-of-two Trewin had changed her plea and admitted cruelty during a trial at Horsham magistrates’ court in June 2001.
The court heard that Trewin had drunk seven cans of lager and two bottles of wine when the offence was committed.
She told the court that she had become angry when a flea from the 6yo tabby, who was called Sasha, bit her on the leg.
She said the cat jumped into the microwave before the door accidentally slammed shut, activating the oven.
She said the cat had cooked for less than a minute, but then the animal failed to move so she tipped her out of the oven from the kitchen window.
She later buried Sasha in the back garden.
Two days later Trewin told her friend Stacey Passmore that she had killed the cat. Miss Passmore was so upset she decided to contact the RSPCA, which prosecuted Trewin.
The court was told that Trewin been suffering from depression and had been prescribed Prozac when the incident occurred.
Trewin’s lawyer said his client “didn’t intend to deliberately harm the cat” and read out a statement from her in which she described herself as having “strong feelings of love for animals”.
As Trewin left the court, animal rights protesters shouted: “Cat killer.”
The RSPCA, which brought the case to court, condemned Trewin’s five-year ban as “far too lenient”.
RSPCA spokeswoman Claire Kennet said: “We feel she should have received a lifetime ban because the act was deliberate.”
Sentencing: Two-year community rehabilitation order. Banned from keeping animals for five years.
CONVICTED (2001) | dogfighting ring members with a twisted obsession for animal cruelty Kenneth Charles Langan, born 12/03/1968, of 277 Valley Road, Portslade, Brighton BN41 2TH, Jeremy Peter Brown, born 11/09/1954, of 4 Tennyson Street, Chesterfield S42 5TY, John Anthony Mullen, born 07/09/1957, of 8 Tarragon Gardens, Northfield, Birmingham B31 5HU and Ryan Nuttall, born c. 1971, of 129 Garden Terrace, Newstead Village, Nottingham NG15 0BX
2019 photo of Ryan Nuttall from Newstead Village, Nottingham
The men pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to animals, failing to provide veterinary care, and providing premises for dog-fighting.
Ryan Nuttall pleaded guilty to 11 charges, while Mullen, Langan and Brown denied some of the lesser charges which included being present at an illegal dog fight.
All four were caught after undercover journalists bought a pit bull terrier and tricked their way into the gang by pretending to be interested in their animal fighting
Sentencing the defendants, District Judge Peter Nuttall said: “To any right-thinking member of the public, dog-fighting, and everything which goes with it, is offensive.
“These were dogs which were used to fighting and they were bred for that.”
He added that a large amount of dog-fighting literature, equipment and cartoons depicting dog-fighting found at the defendants’ addresses showed “an unhealthy obsession” with the practice.
Langan, Nuttall and Brown were sentenced to four months in prison, while Mullen received a three-month custodial sentence.
Paul King, prosecuting, had told the court how seven pit bull-type dogs seized by the RSPCA had suffered hundreds of cuts, puncture wounds and injuries – none of which had been treated by a vet.
The dogfighting ring had conducted fights at two hidden pits at Chesterfield and Newstead in the Mansfield area of Nottinghamshire.
The outcome was hailed by the RSPCA, whose special operations unit had brought the prosecution, as a “fantastic result”.
Speaking after the case RSPCA Chief Inspector Mike Butcher said: “I think this sends a clear message to the public and to other dog-fighters that if they are caught they will go to prison.
“Dog-fighting is a bloody, cruel and brutal sport carried out by people with a perverse sense of pride in their animals.
“Three of the dogs taken in this case had deep scarring and wounds to the face and chest.
“This sentence is a fantastic result for everyone involved, and to have these men taken out of the picture really strikes a blow against animal abusers.”
But despite the victory the RSPCA are concerned that the full picture of dog-fighting in the UK – banned in 1835 – is unknown.
Mr Butcher said: “I have been working to beat these kinds of people for more than 15 years and it is getting harder and harder to catch them.”
Another spokesperson from the animal welfare organisation echoed his fears, saying the illicit nature of dog-fighting meant “most of the time it is very difficult to know where it is being carried out, and the extent of the problem is difficult to assess”.
Sentencing: custodial. All four men were banned from keeping animals for life.
