Sponsored by
Court warning after two celebrities discharged
CELEBRITY chef Clarissa Dickson Wright and champion racehorse trainer Sir Mark Prescott were given absolute discharges for hare coursing yesterday by a judge who warned anyone now convicted of the offence would be dealt with much more harshly.
District Judge Kristina Harrison said she was only being so lenient because at the time of the offences in March 2007 the interpretation of the Hunting Act was still unclear.
"But if anyone should do something like this again they could be dealt with very harshly because it is quite clear now. I do not want anyone to be under any illusion they can get around what Parliament has set out."
The judge dramatically halted yesterday's proceedings when private prosecutors, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, claimed police wanted to head off a Crown prosecution of Dickson Wright, 62, and Prescott, 63, to avoid "a media circus".
Crown lawyers said they recommended police interview both "as a matter of urgency" because they could be identified on video footage of the events but this was not done, the Scarborough hearing was told.
The CPS therefore declined to prosecute Dickson Wright and Prescott because neither had been seen by police within the time limits of the offences.
Both had initially denied the offences of attending two North Yorkshire hare coursing events, one on land owned by leading Yorkshire trainer Peter Easterby, and the other on land owned by huntsman Major John Shaw.
But both changed their pleas to guilty following the conviction of Easterby and Shaw by Judge Harrison who ruled what took place was hare coursing, and not field training of greyhounds, which the defence claimed.
Defending lawyers said Dickson Wright, of Inveresk, East Lothian, and Prescott, of Newmarket, had been invited to Yorkshire by the event organisers, the Yorkshire Greyhound Field Training Club, and suspected nothing untoward.
Neither defendant was at the hearing.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
