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Champion trainer accused of hare coursing
ANTI-hunt campaigners used a secret camera disguised as a pair of field glasses to film an alleged hare coursing event hosted by former champion racehorse trainer Peter Easterby, a court heard yesterday.
Joe Hashman and Michelle Bryan posed as a couple to mingle with the 120 spectators at two meets, the first on land owned by Maj John Shaw and the second on Easterby's land over two days in March 2007, it was said.
The two campaigners were working undercover for the International Fund for Animal Welfare when they turned up at the Cresswell Arms pub in Appleton-le-Street, near Malton.
They were given a map to an event hosted by the Yorkshire Greyhound Field Training Club on farmland owned by Shaw, 54, of Welburn Manor, Welburn, near Kirkbymoorside.
Mr Hashman, who has spent years in "direct action" for the League Against Cruel Sports, and the Hunt Saboteurs, said he deliberately turned up late at the pub to avoid being recognised.
Scarborough magistrates were told at both events there were two lines of spectators standing in the fields to create "an arena".
Beaters waving flags drove the hares past a tent where a man in a red jacket and breeches was holding onto two muzzled greyhounds, one with a red collar and one with a white collar.
As the hares passed, he let slip the dogs.
Mr Hashman said: "I had a pair of binoculars with a video camera built into them. As soon as the hare course started I put the binoculars to my eyes and was filming through them.
"The hair jinxed around a bit and ran straight through the line of spectators, through the vehicles, through a hedge and away, with the dogs in hot pursuit."
The court heard the course was supposed to be laid out so the hares were funnelled towards plastic fencing, which stopped the dogs, while allowing the hares to slip underneath.
Under plans by the Yorkshire Greyhound Field Training Club – which placed the emphasis on the legal blood sport of shooting hares drawn to a gun – the fenced area should have been in the sights of six shotguns.
However, Mr Hashman and Miss Bryan said there was only one shooter by the fencing and they did not see him kill any hares. Mr Hashman added: "He did fire the gun into the air a few times – much to the amusement of the spectators."
Three judges on foot held up a white or red flag, depending on which dog had performed best. In the past there had been a single judge on horseback waving a handkerchief. But Mr Hashman said the change was "cosmetic".
He added: "Nobody challenged us while we were there. I was aware everybody seemed to know everybody else. I was conscious my face might be recognised. I certainly recognised a few faces from previous occasions.
"On the second day, two chaps were giving us funny looks, so at lunchtime we withdrew.."
Shaw maintained he had been presented with advice from counsel well before the event that what the training club proposed was legal.
Yesterday Shaw and Easterby, 78, charged under his birth name of Miles Henry Easterby, of Habton Grange Farm, Great Habton, denied permitting land to be used for hare coursing and attending hare coursing.
The case continues.
Yesterday charges were dropped against Elizabeth Dixon, 44, of Appleton-le-Street, near Malton, accused of facilitating the event.
Cases were also dismissed against Andrew Lund-Watkinson, 56, of Pine View Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, and Jacqueline Teal, 42, of Scarborough Road, Norton, both accused of attending.
A private prosecution against celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright and racehorse trainer Sir Mark Prescott in connection with the events is to be heard at Scarborough on September 1.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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