Offences usually take place in remote areas and are notoriously difficult to prove.
Gamekeeper Racster Dingwall was found guilty of conspiring to kill a Hen Harrier at York Magistrates’ Court last week.
Judgement was based on evidence provided from research by RSPB’s Investigations Team, which was tipped off about potentially illegal activities on Conistone and Grassington Estate, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Footage captured on a hidden camera showed the man, and two accomplices, planning to shoot the rare bird of prey – a protected species – and boasting about other species they had killed during a ‘nolling’ hunt. These included buzzards and ravens. The group was deterred by a satellite tag on the animal, however this was later removed and the raptor was shot.
Facing summary offence charges under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, Dingwall pleaded guilty to to charges. He was given a £400 fine for each, £320 surcharge and must now pay £400 costs. According to the RSPB, this is just one of 147 incidents in which Hen Harriers have gone missing or been found dead due to human action since 2018.
‘This case, supported by high quality evidence, has shown, yet again, that illegal persecution is an ongoing and serious threat to birds of prey, despite the gamebird shooting industry’s attempts to gaslight the public into believing the opposite,’ read a statement from the Wild Justice, a legal and UK wildlife expert organisation.
‘We welcome the conviction in this case although we consider the sentence to be derisory, not helped, in our view, by the Crown Prosecution Service’s failure to provide the court with background context about the widespread persecution of this species and the impact this is having on its conservation status,’ the spokesperson continued.
Image: Pete Nuij / Unsplash
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