CONVICTED (2023) | Mark Flintham, born 8 December 1968, of Lock House, Abingdon Lock, Abingdon OX14 3NW – killed a goose by stamping on it, kicking it and attempting to break its neck.
Headcase: police described Mark Flintham’s vicious attack on a helpless goose as “very disturbing”
Between 2.30pm and 3.30pm on 10 August 2022, Mark Flintham was seen by members of the public grabbing a wild goose in Abbey Meadows, Abingdon.
Flintham stamped on the bird and then kicked it and attempted to break its neck, before taking the lifeless bird away from the park.
Flintham (left, outside court) was photographed holding the injured goose
The incident was investigated by Thames Valley Police’s rural crime taskforce and Flintham was charged on 18 January 2023.
Flintham initially pleaded not guilty, but was found guilty by the court.
Under the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to kill or injure any wild animal, and wild birds are only allowed to be killed or taken under license.
Sentencing | 18 week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months; alcohol treatment; rehabilitation activity requirement; £304 costs. Disqualified from keeping any animal for five years (expires May 2028).
CONVICTED (2023) | Moy Estate gamekeeper Rory Parker, born c. 1998, of Drumbain Cottage, Moy, Tomatin, Inverness IV13 7XW – shot and killed a protected bird of prey in a pre-meditated attack.
Rory Parker was fined £1,575 after he admitted shooting a sparrowhawk on the notorious grouse-shooting Moy Estate, which is owned by Celia Mackintosh but leased out to an unnamed tenant.
In a video filmed by an RSPB Scotland investigations team, Parker was seen firing two shots into the air as the bird, a protected species, flew overhead at Tom Na Slaite, Ruthven, on 16 September 2021.
The video shows a plastic “decoy” owl on a fence post, which the RSPB said was most likely being used to attract birds of prey.
Parker, who is stood near the owl, can be seen to raise a gun and fire two shots, before scrambling over moorland to collect a bird which is clearly still alive but injured enough that it cannot escape.
Raptor Persecution provide commentary on what happened next. They wrote: “{Parker is] calm and proficient as he stamps his foot/knee on the bird to crush it, before casually picking it up and retuning to his hiding place in the bush. It appears to be quite routine and he does not look at all disturbed at having just committed a serious wildlife crime.”
The land where the sparrowhawk was shot is used for pheasant and partridge shoots and is managed by a tenant of the Moy Estate.
The court heard police recovered two shotgun cartridges and feathers from the site of the sparrowhawk shooting.
In court, Parker admitted the offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Mark Moir KC, defending, told Sheriff Sara Matheson that his client had been in his job since he left school.
Mr Moir said: “He is deeply shameful of what he has done. He has brought the estate into disrepute and has now resigned.
“His firearms certificate is likely to be revoked as a result of this conviction. He should have been shooting pigeons and crows that day. Feral pigeons are a problem on the estate.
“However, the sparrowhawk flew over and there was a rush of blood. He says it was a stupid thing to do.”
Sheriff Matheson told Parker Scotland’s birds of prey were precious and deserved protection.
Following sentencing, RSPB Scotland said that parker was the 56th gamekeeper to be convicted of raptor persecution offences in Scotland since 1990.
Ian Thomson, head of investigations, said: “This conviction was the end result of exemplary partnership working between Police Scotland, RSPB Scotland, the Wildlife DNA Forensics team at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture and the Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit of Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.”
He said the persecution of birds of prey was continuing in Scotland “unabated”.
A spokesman for the Moy Estate said they had suspended Parker from his position after being made aware of the “unacceptable” incident. The spokesman further added that they are committed to maintaining the highest standards of game management.
Despite this assertion, the Moy Estate is currently under licence restrictions imposed by NatureScot in June 2022 after the police provided “robust evidence” that birds had been killed or taken illegally on the land.
All birds of prey are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and killing them is against the law, punishable by an unlimited fine and/or jail.
Shooting estates such as Moy may target them, however, for fear that they will predate and kill young grouse or eat eggs, reducing their numbers and making shooting less profitable.
CONVICTED (2022) | gamekeeper Matthew Stroud, born c. 1976, of Keepers Cottage, Fengate, Weeting, Brandon IP27 0QF – illegally shot and poisoned birds of prey.
Stroud dosed dead pheasants with poison as bait to kill buzzards in woodlands near Weeting Heath and Breckland Forest, which are both protected sites.
Appearing at Norwich Magistrates Court he admitted shooting five buzzards and one goshawk, the poisoning of another buzzard, the laying of poison baits and illegal possession of poisons including strychnine.
He also became the first person convicted for the unauthorised release of game birds on a Special Protection Area (SPA).
Despite the gravity of his offences Stroud walked free from court with a paltry fine and a community sentence.
The court heard an investigation was launched when RSPB officers found a young pheasant dead in Belvedere Wood, Weeting, on August 19, 2021, that had been poisoned.
Police later also searched Stroud’s home where they found three dead buzzards that x-rays showed had been shot. Two pheasant carcasses with extremely high levels of strychnine and a poisoned common buzzard were found in Belvedere Wood, protected because of its internationally important population of stone curlews. His mobile phone was also found to contain photos of a dead goshawk and five dead buzzards.
Stroud, a self-employed gamekeeper at Fengate Farm, pleaded guilty to six counts of killing a common buzzard and of killing a northern goshawk, both protected species. He also admitted possessing four shotguns to kill wild birds, poison without a licence and storing poison incorrectly and releasing 3,400 pheasants into the wild contrary to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Michael Horn, mitigating, said: “There has been a shoot in this area for over 300 years. In 2020 there were no shoots held for obvious reasons. The next year the defendant was, perhaps wrongfully and unlawfully, very keen to restart it.
“At the time these pheasants were being decimated by these buzzards. His livelihood was being decimated.”
Mark Thomas, head of RSPB Investigations UK, said: “It is difficult not to be disappointed with the outcome today considering the significance of the offences and combined efforts of the agencies involved.
“Laying poison baits out in the open is not only illegal but extremely dangerous and irresponsible.
“Baits like those being used at Fengate Farm present a deadly risk to any animal or person that might come across it. It is particularly troubling that this was happening on an SPA, a designated area where wildlife and nature should have the highest legal protection.”
PC Chris Shelley, Norfolk police rural crime officer, said: “This investigation is one of the biggest cases of its kind that we have dealt with in Norfolk. “Stroud’s actions were dangerous and inhumane – he shot and poisoned birds of prey as he saw fit, and at will, because it suited him to do so.
“He also used a highly dangerous poison – one that has been banned in the UK for the last 15 years – indiscriminately, which could have had a disastrous effect on other local wildlife and showed a scant disregard for the safety of others.”
In a statement the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) said: “There is no space for illegality in the countryside, nor in the shooting community.
“BASC has a zero-tolerance approach to the illegal killing of birds of prey. Shooting’s contribution to conservation efforts and the rural economy is too great to allow the criminal actions of a tiny minority jeopardise the ongoing benefits.
“Positively, these cases are becoming rarer and population levels of most UK birds of prey are at record highs, much of this is down to the conservation efforts of shooting interests.”
Sentencing | 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work; fined £692.
CONVICTED (2022) | gamekeeper Archie Watson, born c. 2000, of Dragon Lane, Manningford Bruce, Pewsey SN9 6JE – caught dumping dead birds of prey in a well.
Archie Watson, pictured during his court appearance, was filmed dumping dead wild birds in a well.
Watson was prosecuted after secret filming caught him dumping dead buzzards, red kites and a herring gull on the farm where he worked.
He pleaded guilty to illegally possessing dead birds of prey after the animals were found in a well within the grounds of Galteemore Farm (aka the Farm at Avebury) in Beckhampton.
The charges related to five dead buzzards, three red kites, one herring.
He also admitted three counts of failing to comply with a firearm certificate after a loaded shotgun was discovered on the seat of his unlocked vehicle.
Magistrates heard that in August 2020 the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) launched a covert investigation after they received a tip-off about a gamekeeper at Galteemore Farm killing birds of prey and throwing their remains into a well.
Prosecuting, Ashley Petchey said an investigation team from the bird conservation charity attended the farm and installed hidden cameras around the well.
Watson walked free from court with a community order. Picture: Facebook.
Footage recorded by the camera showed a male attending the site on numerous occasions and on 12 August 2020, a male was captured placing a buzzard into the well. Wiltshire Police was informed and they were able to identify him as Watson.
Armed with video footage, the force attained a search warrant under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Supported by the RSPB, Natural England and the National Wildlife Crime Unit raided two separate addresses linked to Watson – including Galteemore Farm – in September 2020.
The farm’s owner, Robert Hues, was located and gave police Watson’s address. Watson was subsequently arrested at that address.
Specially trained rescue personnel entered the well and recovered the remains of numerous birds. As well as the protected red kites, buzzards and gull, dead pheasants were also located. The remains of a sheep and the skull of an unidentified mammal were also found.
In custody, Watson told officers that the buzzard he was recorded putting into the well was found dead under a tree. He said he used the well to dispose of birds and said the leg rings were found whilst metal detecting on land in Pewsey.
Mr Petchey said the birds’ cause of death could not be ascertained, though two of the buzzards located in the well did have metal in them.
Andy Lee, defending, said his client wished to make it clear he never caused unnecessary suffering or killed any birds or animals and there is “no evidence he has done so”.
He said Watson “came into possession of those birds after they have died” having discovered them on the farm’s land after they died. He said the birds were disposed of in the well after their death to “prevent the spread of disease”.
He added that there is “no evidence he had personally persecuted” the birds.
CPS Wessex Senior Crown Prosecutor Angharad Thomas said: “This is one of the largest prosecutions of someone being in possession of dead wild birds.
“Every wild bird is protected by law and it is an offence to even be in possession of one, dead or alive.
“A huge effort has gone into growing the red kite population in the UK, so to find three of them dead in that area is alarming and will have an impact on the success of this protected species.
“The CPS takes wildlife offences very seriously and will prosecute whenever our legal test is met.”
Sentencing | 12-month community order with 180 hours of unpaid work; ordered to pay the Fairtrade Access Fund £288.
CONVICTED (2018) | Laurence Brown, born. c. 1958, of Derwent Avenue, Falkirk FK1 5HZ – trapped his neighbour’s cat in an illegal and inhumane fox snare.
Cruel Laurence Brown bought an illegal snare off the internet and used it to trap his neighbour’s cat. Miraculously she was unhurt.
Brown told the court he set a fox-snare for his neighbour’s cat because she wouldn’t stop fouling in his hot tub
The lorry driver said he had tried screens, pepper, and even lion dung after the feline began to “repeatedly” defecate in the heated outdoor whirlpool.
After these attempts failed to stop the cat, Brown bought a snare on the Internet and set it where the animal was squeezing through the palings of the fence that divided his garden from the cat’s owner’s garden.
Prosecutor Susan Campbell said: ‘His garden backs onto their garden, and the gardens are separated by a six foot fence which has spaces which the cat can fit through.
‘On 22nd June the owner of the cat heard a yowling noise coming from the area of the fence.
‘He saw his cat dashing and realised that she had a piece of wire round her neck.
‘It was a loop of yellow wire with a small metal fixing and there was no stopper on the device which would have prevented it from continuing to tighten.
‘He got some scissors and cut it off. The cat was not injured.’
Ms Campbell said the cat’s owner challenged Brown about the incident, who claimed he was ‘trying to catch foxes’.
In court, Brown pleaded guilty to setting an illegal and inhumane snare and trapping the cat, whereby she became entangled and unable to free herself, causing her unnecessary suffering.
He also admitted contravening the Wildlife and Countryside Act by setting a snare ‘calculated to cause unnecessary suffering’ to any animal coming into contact with it, in that it had no ‘stop’ on its noose.
Sheriff James MacDonald told Brown: ‘You had a limited record when you appeared before me, but you now have a conviction for animal cruelty, and that will live with you.
‘Not only that, you will have to live with the consequences of your actions – not least of which is knowing that your neighbour knows that you set a trap for his cat, which on the basis of the narration given to me by the Crown, can only have been with the intent to either maim that animal or at least cause it significant injury.
‘Fortunately for you it was unhurt, but I should tell you this: Parliament intended these offences to be taken seriously, and that is why Parliament provided me with the power to send you to prison for up to 12 months.
‘You should understand that if there is any repeat of this sort of behaviour, the court will undoubtedly regard it seriously.’
CONVICTED (2018) | Jobi Lee Varey, born c. 1991, of Blascomay Square, Colne BB8 0SG – shot two ducks dead with an air rifle.
Traveller Jobi Lee Varey, brother of notorious cat killer and wildlife persecutor Josh ‘Percy’ Varey, was caught in the Cotton Tree Lane area of Colne where officers saw him going into the river to retrieve a dead bird. Varey, who had an air rifle, put the duck next to another dead bird on the grass.
Magistrates were told how Varey struck without permission and out of the ” duck shooting season”.
The ground worker said he often went to the area to shoot birds to feed his bird of prey.
Jobi Lee Varey (right) with cat and wildlife-killing brother Josh Varey (aka Percy Varey)
Varey’s lawyer told the court his client had gone to shoot rabbits, which he had done previously, with permission. He claimed Varey had acted out of ignorance rather than committing an intentional offence.
Varey admitted killing a wild bird – a Manky Mallard and a Mandarin duck, on April 17, 2018.
He was fined £200, with £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
