Keeper found guilty of bird crime

Derbyshire gamekeeper was found guilty last week of using a live pigeon as bait in an attempt to trap and kill birds of prey illegally.

Following a ten-day trial at Chesterfield Magistrates Court, Glenn Brown was convicted of seven offences under the 1981 Countryside and Wildlife Act. He was sentenced to 100 hours community service and ordered to pay £10,000 costs.

The National Gamekeepers? Organisation (NGO) told Shooting Times that its views on the illegal killing of birds of prey were clear. A spokesman said: ?Our policy statement has been on the NGO website for several years. Any member who is found to have brought gamekeeping into disrepute faces expulsion.?

Video evidence submitted by the RSPB showed Brown using a cage trap baited with a live pigeon on the grouse shooting estate in the Upper Derwent Valley. It also showed a man in a balaclava, alleged to be Brown, checking on the bird. The court also heard that a dead sparrowhawk was found by the side of the cage.

The rest of this article appears in 22nd June issue of Shooting Times.

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