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, the Director of the Masters of the Foxhounds Association, was charged after footage from the webinars was obtained by hunt saboteurs, who passed it to the media and police.

His appeal rests on the admissibility of the footage and of evidence given by Dr David Martin, a veterinarian and expert witness for the prosecution.

Hankinson’s barrister Rachna Gokani told Southwark Crown Court: ‘The webinar on 11 August is the third in a series of five and, in order to attend the webinar, attendees would have to register and the Hunting Office would check their credentials and provide them with access.

‘One of the hunt masters wasn’t in a position to attend the webinar, but her personal email address was used unlawfully to gain access anyway.

‘There is an investigation ongoing into unlawful use of email addresses more widely than the hunting community.

‘Last week we received a bundle of additional information but, in essence, it tells us that one individual was arrested and devices seized.

‘Only one of the devices has been looked at so far and doesn’t show the webinar being accessed, but it does show the email address of the hunt master whose credentials were used to access the webinar.

‘Our application is bolstered by additional material, including a draft witness statement from the hunt master who explains her personal email address was used to access the webinar.

‘Because of the way the videos were obtained and because they were put online and simply downloaded by the prosecution, they are stripped of context and further stripped of any proper investigation into the surrounding circumstances, which would include literature and audience attendance.

‘We must recognise that there are circumstances relating to the way evidence is obtained which taint that evidence to such an extent that it wouldn’t be fair to be relied upon.’

Turning to Dr Martin’s evidence, Ms Gokani described the vet as an ‘enthusiastic amateur’ who was ‘undoubtedly an expert in his field but [is] not an expert in this one’.

She stressed Hankinson’s original defence, that the advice was intended to aid hunt masters in avoiding so-called ‘saboteurs’, who try to disrupt hunts in the name of animal welfare.

Gregory Gordon, prosecuting, told the court: ‘It must be the case either that the webinar was hacked, the credentials belonging to that hunt master were used without her permission or that the webinar was infiltrated from within the hunting community and [that hunt master] voluntarily gave her details. It is one of the two.

‘We have her statement which suggests it was the former, the hacking, but as she has disengaged, we don’t know that for certain.

‘We have nothing from her since 25 January 2021, when she gave the statement.’

Regarding the way the footage was obtained, Mr Gordon said: ‘The Hunt Saboteurs Association posted [the recording] on a public website, the police downloaded it, it was then in the public domain.

‘The Hunt Saboteurs Association made rather a public splash about what they had done.

‘The manner in which the evidence was obtained was not controlled, the prosecution didn’t encourage, explicitly or implicitly, that those webinars should be obtained.

‘We didn’t even know about them until they were placed in the public domain.

‘What is recorded is not said to be abridged in any way. In fact, it was accepted at trial that those were full videos of [Hankinson’s] words, so it’s difficult to say they were stripped of context.

‘If there is any other context, the defence are at liberty to provide it.’

Mr Gordon said although Dr Martin had not attended a hunt himself this did not negate his ‘considerable experience as a vet’ and ‘social interaction’ with the hunting community.

Hankinson, of Sherborne, Dorset, denied but was convicted of encouraging illegal fox-hunting, in two webinars between 11 and 13 August 2020.

He was fined £1,000, in addition to £2,500 in prosecution costs and a £100 surcharge last month following a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last October.

Judge Gregory Perins adjourned the hearing until tomorrow (thurs).

The case against the farmer was brought by the League Against Cruel Sports, a campaign organisation against hunting which was instrumental in bringing about the 2004 Hunting Act.