Convicted hunter begins court appeal

The head of the national foxhounds group has launched an appeal against his conviction for illegally offering advice on how to run illegal hunts in online lectures. Mark Hankinson, 61, was recorded on two training webinars, attended by about 100 hunts, in which he acknowledged trail hunting was a cover for the chasing and killing of foxes. Trail hunting was devised in the wake of the 2004 Hunting Act to legally replicate the outlawed sport as closely as possible. Hankinson,…