Sponsored by
Hare-coursing case: pair deny charges
A CHAMPION horse trainer and a Major have gone on trial at Scarborough Magistrates' Court after alleged hare coursing.
Former jumps trainer Miles Easterby, known as Peter, 78, of Great Habton in Malton, is charged with attending and permitting the use of his land for hare coursing on March 3, 2007.
Major John Shaw, 54, of Welburn in Kirkbymoorside, is charged with the same offences after an alleged event on his land on March 2, 2007. Both men deny the charges.
Prosecuting Matthew Donkin said: "I suggest that what happened on those days was hare coursing under the disguise of field trailing."
The case, only the second case of its kind ever to be heard since the introduction of the Hunting Act, was brought after undercover animal welfare activists used binoculars fitted with a camera to secretly film footage at the two alleged hare coursing events.
District Judge Christina Harrison heard from Michelle Bryan and Joe Hashman from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, who posed as a couple and attended both the events.
Mr Hashman, a regular protester at hare coursing events, said: "We had information that there was to be a hare coursing event in the area.
"We heard people were meeting at a local pub. We deliberately got there late because I thought I might have been recognised. When we got there though I was given a map directing us to a field.
"Everyone seemed to know everyone there and I was conscious that my face might be recognised as I certainly recognised a few faces.
"On the second day I felt that two chaps were looking at us funny so we left after lunch. When you are in that situation in a field full of people you don't want to be found out as being an anti."
The court was shown a clip of the footage filmed on the binoculars.
Mr Hashman described how "beaters" would drive hares in to a field where a man known as a "slipper" would be standing out of sight with two greyhounds in a canvas structure known as a "shy". When the hares ran past the "shy" the "slipper" would release the hounds which chased the hares.
He claimed over the two days there was more than 40 occasions of hare coursing.
Hare coursing was outlawed by the Hunting Act, which came into force in 2005. However, many former participants now take part in a permissible sport known as Greyhound Field Trials, which is run under strict rules.
The events in question were organised by the Yorkshire Greyhound Field Trialing Club.
Its chairman Andrew Lund-Watkinson told the judge he had sought legal advice before organising the event to ensure it complied with the Hunting Act. He said: "The defendants are my friends and my neighbours and I would not go before them and lie to them.
"If I thought this was in any way hare coursing I would not have asked to use their land and I would not have put them in this situation."
The trial continues.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Scarborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North east
