Father and son left foxhunt observer with broken neck in attack

‘I am very lucky. After falling 14ft, finding myself unable to move, I feared I was paralysed’

A SENIOR hunt member and his son punched a former police officer and broke his neck after catching him filming the Belvoir hunt, a court has heard.

George Grant, 55, and his son Thomas Grant, 24, attacked Darryl Cunnington, a League Against Cruel Sports professional investigator, in March 2016. Mr Cunnington was also pushed down a 14ft slope while monitoring the foxhunt. He suffered a broken neck after the incident – which also saw fellow investigator Roger Swain seriously assaulted.

The two victims were attacked by the men while they were observing the Belvoir hunt in Leicestershire and were eventually pushed off the escarpment. The investigators also had their video cameras stolen by the defendants, who launched the attack with the assistance of four unidentified masked men, the League Against Cruel Sports has said.

At Leicester Crown Court yesterday, George Grant, a senior hunt member, and his son pleaded guilty to charges of grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, theft of a video camera and criminal damage of a memory card. The pair, of Belvoir, will be sentenced on June 14.

The convictions come 13 years after foxhunting was banned in England and Wales following the introduction of the Hunting Act 2004, which came into force a year later. After the hearing, Mr Cunnington, said: “Hopefully this will send out a message to all hunts that they cannot carry out assaults on people who wish to monitor their activities. I am very lucky that the assault has left me with no long-term serious injuries. After falling 14ft, finding myself unable to move, I feared I was paralysed.”