Man who cut off deer’s head risks prison sentence

A HOBART man is facing the prospect of jail after he was filmed cutting off a deer’s head during off-season and posing with its skull cap — and for possessing a bestiality video involving a donkey.

Joshua Andrew Bester, 27, faced the Hobart Magistrates

Court on Thursday, changing his pleas from not guilty to guilty over wildlife and bestiality product charges. A charge of an act causing suffering to an animal was dismissed.

Prosecutor Emily Bill said police were conducting a target patrol around Ouse in April last year, outside shooting season, when the beasts are

“unusually tame”. They found Bester in the rear of a vehicle, and also found two skull caps of male fallow deer and a rifle, she said.

The mobile phones of everyone in the car were seized.

When Bester was interviewed by police, he said he obtained the bestiality video — which didn’t include torture — from a group friends chat.

Police located a video showing Bester taking the dead body of a fallow deer, and cutting its head off, Ms Bill said.

He can then be seen cutting the skull cap — a portion of the deer’s skull and flesh including its antlers — and then posing with it.

Ms Bill said Bester had a number of relevant priors, with about 40 wildlife and firearmsrelated charges.

She said he also had a prior conviction for an act resulting in the death of an animal in 2016, for which he’d received a suspended sentence.

“The defendant has failed to be deterred from engaging in this type of activity,” she said. Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason said Bester was at “real risk of prison”.

She adjourned the matter, with Bester remaining on conditonal bail, and ordered a report assessing his suitability for home detention.

Bester will return to court on March 6 for sentence.