Pair spared jail for cattle cruelty at £4m mansion

Mother and son Pamela and Joseph Palmer were sentenced by Selby magistrates yesterday after the RSPCA discovered the dead cattle and sheep at the 200-acre Sheriff Hutton Park, Sheriff Hutton, near York – a former royal hunting lodge built during the reign of King James I between 1619 and 1624.

Inspectors found carcasses of cattle in an old swimming pool at the grade one listed hall, five dead sheep in a derelict coaching house and a lame Hereford bull and cow that were so badly injured they had to be put down.

Several of the animals had died from starvation and the court heard they had been trying to eat soil in order to survive.

Mrs Palmer, 70, who comes from a wealthy family with links to the Australian stock exchange, and her son, were in charge of hundreds of animals on the historic estate which she bought for £3m 10 years ago.

But the court was told she had run into severe financial difficulties and had been making mortgage repayments on Sheriff Hutton Hall of £35,000 per month after making an agreement with “an organisation that was less than reputable”.

Philip Brown, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said other farmers who had visited the site began expressing concerns over animal welfare in 2009.

In April 2010, an agency which was instructed to repossess the property discovered the scenes of neglect and the RSPCA were called in.

“They found a number of cattle carcasses that appeared to have been attempted to have been burnt, or buried in a swimming pool which had effectively been used as a slurry dump,” he said.

“In a derelict, padlocked outhouse the carcasses of five emaciated sheep were found.

“A post-mortem indicated they had died of starvation and lack of access to water, and they had been eating soil to try and survive.

“They also found a bull which had a severe abscess on its leg, and a cow which had part of its hip bone exposed due to untreated arthritis.

“Both had to be humanely destroyed.”

Mrs Palmer, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to three offences of causing unnecessary suffering to a bull, causing unnecessary suffering to a cow and causing unnecessary suffering to five sheep by failing to provide care and supervision, resulting in their death.

When the charges were put to the defendant, who appeared in court wearing a tweed jacket and walking with the aid of two crutches, she replied: “I don’t think I am guilty but I’m going to plead guilty.”

Mr Palmer, of Tingley, near Leeds, was convicted in his absence at an earlier court hearing.

Each of the defendants was sentenced to 18 weeks in jail suspended for 12 months and banned from keeping cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and donkeys for life.

Mr Palmer was also ordered to carry out 100 hours’ unpaid work.

Kate Raitt, defending, said both Mrs Palmer and her son, who are from a long-standing farming background, believed they were doing their best for the livestock and had never had any problems with other animals on the farm, which included 180 sheep, horses, donkeys, cats and dogs.

She added that Mrs Palmer had experienced a “long, difficult history” on the farm, including livestock being stolen and stabbed, crosses daubed on her door in animal blood, headless sheep carcasses being left on her doorstep and their heads left on gateposts.

She also had problems with her health and claimed her family diamonds had recently gone missing.

She said Mrs Palmer, who was declared bankrupt last December, had looked after livestock since she was 17, had a large farm in Australia and kept a farm in Hereford for 43 years.

Miss Raitt said: “They’ve done their best, they’ve provided care without any incident to many animals. They believed what they were doing was the best.

“This is a woman who has really lost everything.”

Speaking after the hearing, Laura Barber from the RSPCA, said: “This was a quite unbelievable case. We do not normally find cases of severe animal cruelty in beautiful old houses such as this.”

Mrs Palmer was ordered to pay £500 costs, while her son will pay £1,000.

Sentencing the pair, chair of the bench Hilary Gilbertson said the sentences reflected the “abhorrence of the public to the treatment of the animals in your care in this way”.