My guilt at accidental shooting of an otter
I hope case goes ahead, I will embarrass a lot of people and I am sickened by this
A MAN who admitted to investigators, and the Irish Mail on Sunday this week, that he illegally shot an otter dead, doesn’t know why he is not being prosecuted.
The MoS has learned that an investigation into the killing, first revealed in this newspaper, has inexplicably stalled despite a confession from William Kett of Stradbally, Waterford, who was employed by Ballynatray Estate, also in Waterford, for vermin control.
An internal Parks and Wildlife Service report recommended three people be prosecuted but the investigation has since stalled.
Mr Kett told the MoS: ‘I am hoping my case goes ahead and I will make an embarrassment out of an awful lot of people. I am sickened over this, because I was hoping something would have happened.’ Sources say the report also reveals how two red kites, recently arrived there, have vanished.
Ballynatray House and grounds are owned by English businessman Henry Gwyn Jones, who bought it in 2004 for €11m. It offers the opportunity to shoot domesticated ducks kept in pens along the river bank and released over the Blackwater estuary. A day’s shooting can cost up to €1,000. Crucially, however, parts of the estate are on the Blackwater River Special Area of Conservation – and an otter is a protected species. A source said that the report was lodged before Christmas. The investigation wasn’t finished at that point. An excavation of the site should have been done but nothing further happened. There was no response to any queries.
The investigation began after a conservation ranger with the National Parks and Wildlife Service visited the estate last September. The ranger discovered the tail of an otter sticking out of a bag filled with dead animals including partridges, pheasants and ducks. An X-ray was taken and an autopsy was carried out – and it was discovered the otter had been shot.
Sources told the MoS that cameras were set up on the estate, which recorded three people burning bags of dead birds. The report recommended Mr Kett be prosecuted for shooting the otter and two other men be prosecuted for concealing the illegal killing.
Mr Kett said that he went to the wildlife ranger and admitted killing the otter in early morning light, thinking it was a fox. He had been asked to do vermin control as foxes were killing the ducks. He said: ‘My choice was to go to the ranger. I was told by umteen fellas to say nothing, but I couldn’t.’
He added: ‘Around October I went to the conservation ranger. I told him exactly what happened. He took a statement off me and I was told there would probably be a court case.’ Mr Kett told how he was about to turn 50 at the time and this was the first big mistake he had made while shooting.
He said: ‘The NPWS had trail cameras up and caught other people burying the otter, but I
‘I was told there would probably be a court case’
wasn’t going to cover it up.’ And he said the situation turned bizarre when he got a phone call asking if he was suffering with dementia.
He explained: ‘If I had dementia, that gives the wildlife ranger permission to come here straight away and take the gun.’
Although he had heard the case has been dropped, he has not been formally told. He said he hopes the case goes ahead as it will embarrass a lot of people.
When contacted by the MoS this week Ballynatray Estate said it had no comment to make.