Three deny breaching the law by hunting fox

The Crown Prosecution Service brought charges against them on the basis of evidence gathered by the League Against Cruel Sports, Scarborough Court was told.

The League's head of operations, Paul Tildsley, was waiting with binoculars, camcorder and three assistants, all equipped with two-way radios, when the Sinnington Hunt rode out on the former Wombleton airfield, near Kirkbymoorside, last December 16, following complaints from the landowner about the hunt's previous behaviour.

Yesterday, the hunt master, Anthony Graham Winter, 44, of Sykehead Lane, Nawton, near Helmsley, denied being in charge of hounds that hunted a fox. He and his whipper-in, Caroline Scott, 37, of the same address, and a hunt follower, Wilfred Gamble, 65, of Beckett Close, Nawton, also pleaded not guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs, contrary to the 2004 Act.

Video footage was shown in the court of hounds and fox running across the airfield.

Prosecutor John Swoboda told district judge Simon Hickey that the hunt was trespassing. It had done so before and the landowner had approached the LACS in advance of this particular outing.

The investigators from the LACS had seen "terrier men" on a quad bike follow the fox into a small woodland, with red-coated huntsmen behind them.

Mr Tildsley said he had heard the hounds "speaking", indicating they were excited at being on a scent.

He had taken up a position in some low bushes and could see across the airfield.

He had seen the fox run across the airfield, then lost sight of it. He had heard the master's horn, urging the hounds to return to him. Later, in the woodland, he and his team found a hole which had been dug and widened and a small pool of blood and fox fur.

Questioned by Robert Woodcock, QC, for the defendants, he said he had seen the fox going into the wood but not coming out of it. He also agreed that trail hunting – following a scent laid artificially – had been a response to the Hunting Act. The trial continues.