Hunt convictions fall as campaigners claim the law ‘lies in tatters’
HUNTING conviction rates have fallen to an all-time low as a series of highprofile cases have collapsed, it can be revealed.
Just over 40 per cent of cases prosecuted last year resulted in a conviction, almost half the general conviction rate for other offences.
Hunting campaigners say it shows that the Hunting Act “lies in tatters” and the Government should look again at the law which is “too complex”.
The figures have emerged months after a judge ordered that almost £60,000 in costs be paid to three members of the Grove and Rufford Hunt in Nottinghamshire who were wrongly convicted on the basis of “selective” evidence.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Justice, of the 52 prosecutions brought under the Hunting Act in 2017, only 22 resulted in convictions.
The 42 per cent conviction rate is the lowest since the law came into force in 2005, dropping from 54pc in 2016. According to the latest figures available from the CPS, the overall magistrates’ court conviction rate stands at 85.3pc and Crown Court at 79.9pc.
Though the figures for 2018 are not yet available, there have so far been 36 completed prosecutions of registered fox hunts, leading to 14 convictions.
Of the 2017 convictions only one involved a registered hunt. Huntsman George Adams of the Fitzwilliam Hunt has been given leave to appeal and his case will be heard in January. If successful then it would be the latest in a string of cases that have fallen apart.
The case against three members of the Derwent Hunt was dropped last year after magistrates ruled that there was no case to answer, and in March Evo Shirley from the Portman Hunt was cleared on the basis of no evidence.
Kim Richardson, Joint Master and Huntsman of the Crawley and Horsham Hunt, was also cleared on appeal earlier this year of a separate offence of a public order offence after a run-in with a saboteur. Simon Hart, the Tory MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, said: “Prosecutors have discovered that the act isn’t particularly straightforward. Just because it looks like hunting it doesn’t mean that it is.”
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “These figures demonstrate unequivocally that the Hunting Act lies in tatters.”
He said that the “vast majority” of those prosecuted are poachers or casual hunters who “would have been guilty of offences which pre-existed the Hunting Act anyway.”
Mr Bonner added: “The law that was supposed to have got rid of hunts is now being used as little more than a vehicle to harass them.”
A spokesman for the CPS said: “Annual fluctuations in conviction figures may be due to a number of reasons, including the number of defendants involved in a case, the rate at which prosecutions have been completed, and the volume of referrals to the CPS.”