Norfolk fox hunt trial shown moment animal is 'pulled to pieces' by hounds in family's garden
CCTV shown in court of the moments before the fox's death. Viewers may find this video distressing.
The trial of four members of a hunt has been played footage of the moment a fox was “pulled to pieces” by a pack of hounds in a family’s back garden.
The CCTV, filmed at the home in Hingham, Norfolk, on 20 February last year, also showed a man jumping over a fence to remove the animal’s remains as riders on horseback wait by the road outside.
West Norfolk Hunt Masters Andrew Kendall and Robert Gurney, huntsman Edward Bell and “whipper in” assistant Adam Egginton all deny charges of hunting a wild mammal with dogs and being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control.
Kim Thomas, who lived at the home in Hingham with her daughter Daisy, told the court she was having chemotherapy at the time of the incident.
She said she was woken by the sounds of barking dogs and saw “four horses and four smartly dressed ladies” on her drive.
Moments later she went out to the back garden to find a “really big area covered in blood” and “bits of fur.”
She told Great Yarmouth Magistrates’ Court: “It was obvious that something really terrible had happened.”
Mrs Thomas called her daughter and inspected the home’s CCTV cameras, showing what she described as “25-30 dogs going crazy”.
“I was actually incredibly frightened and upset,” she said. “I have a two-year-old grandson who had been out there playing that morning.”
The court was also played footage captured by “hunt monitor” Sally Field in Tittleshall, Norfolk, on 8 February last year.
She told the court she had arrived early to observe the hunt and had seen dozens of hounds chasing a fox.
Prosecutor Mark Jackson asked her: “Did you hear any signals or sounds to call the hunt off?”
Ms Field replied: “None, quite the contrary.”
Fox hunting has been illegal in England since the introduction of the Hunting Act in 2004.
Bell, 31, from Necton in Norfolk, and Egginton, 23, from Aston in Worcester, deny two charges of fox hunting, three charges of criminal damage and two charges of owning a dog dangerously out of control.
Kendall, 67, of Hulver Road, Beccles, denies one charge of fox hunting, one charge of owning a dog dangerously out of control and three charges of criminal damage - all relating to the incident in Hingham.
Gurney, 55, of Bawdeswell Hall, Dereham, denies one charge of fox hunting and one charge of owning a dog dangerously out of control - both relating to the incident in Tittleshall.
The court heard that the man who was seen on the CCTV in Hingham removing the remains of the fox has “never been identified” and the defendants have “refused to name him”.
All four men, said Mr Jackson, claim the dogs were not dangerously out of control.
They insist they were “trail hunting” and that there was “no intention of pursuit”.
The case continues.
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