Gamekeepers

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The tory tabloids were full of outrage last weekend ( e.g Mos Link) that Prince William's bestie William van Cutsem was questioned by Norfolk police.

Well, the reason could be that his gamekeepers have been involved with illegal killing of supposedly protected raptors, in this case a young Goshawk was trapped and presumably disposed of out of camera range. Covertly recorded footage here.
BBC report.
Has there been any publicity in these rags that this was discovered? Go on, surprise me.

PS. In 2007, William van Cutsem was interviewed along with Prince Harry into the alleged shooting of two hen harriers on a nature reserve bordering the Queen’s Sandringham Estate. No charges were brought.
In 2016, a gamekeeper employed on the van Cutsem family’s Mossdale Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park was caught on camera setting illegal pole traps on the estate’s grouse moor. The gamekeeper escaped with a police caution after a procedural blunder by North Yorkshire Police, instead of facing a full blown prosecution, and the estate was forced to resign its membership from the Moorland Association.
 
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Meanwhile, in the Peak District, two male Hen Harriers disappeared in the space of three days, causing two nests, each containing five eggs, to be abandoned. This was on National Trust land! What a remarkable coincidence that two healthy rare* birds should vanish so near each other.
BBC report.
* They're rare for a reason, and that's illegal persecution.
 
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Chris Loder, the tory MP for West Dorset, lucky recipient of a £12000 donation from the Ilchester shooting estate and frequent scaremonger about White-tailed Sea Eagles flying off with lambs and unattended small children, was successful in his lobbying (what a polite word!) of the tory PCC David Sidwick and the Chief Constable, and had the investigation into the death by poisoning of an eagle stopped.
This BBC report of a third death states, erroneously, that Dorset Police continues to investigate the deaths of two other white-tailed eagles that were found in January. The excellent wildlife officer, Claire Dinsdale, has apparently been told that she will no longer be a wildlife crime team lead when/if she returns from long-term sick leave. Dorset dogwalkers have been warned to keep their dogs on a lead following the discovery of a dead Buzzard, probably poisoned but not yet confirmed.
 
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Another pathetically weak sentence for a psychopathic thug.
https://www.norfolk.police.uk/news/latest-news/gamekeeper-admits-killing-birds-prey
 
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AuroraSaab

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They should name his employer. Hard to believe they wouldn't be aware it was going on. Hardly a deterrent sentence.
 
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Amazing! An ex gamekeeper actually sentenced to prison, albeit only 18 weeks.
Graphic video in this Daily Mail link - you have been warned!
For those of a more sensitive disposition (and here I apologise again for linking to the Daily Wail), it was also reported by ITV here.
Apparently he was shopped to the RSPCA by his (now ex) girlfriend. Hope she manages to keep her distance once he's released.
 
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A Dorset gamekeeper pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing parts of nine dead buzzards, six of which were shown to have been shot, keeping a loaded shotgun and ammunition unsecured and possession of two bottles of strychnine, two containers of cymag (illegal since 2005) and a packet of bendiocarb (an insecticide but widely used in illegal poisoning of raptors). This followed police investigation after the discovery of a dead red kite next to a dead rat which had been laced with poison. Remarkably, a charge of killing the red kite was dropped, which is like having a charge of murder dropped when the body was found on your premises, you had the murder weapon and a motive!
More remarkably still(?), the scene of crimes was the Shaftesbury estate, where the poisoned sea eagle was found and Dorset police, after pressure from Chris Loder MP, declined to investigate. See post #3. Prosecutions represent just the tiny tip of a very dirty iceberg - most illegal persecution of wildlife goes uninvestigated due to the difficulty of providing proof, e.g. three barn owls, a tawny owl and a red kite found dead in a ditch near Sleaford, or four hen harrier chicks being stamped to death.

A small good news story is that Claire Dinsdale, after being forced out of her investigative role in Dorset police, has joined the National Wildlife Crime Unit.
 
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Poacher said:
A Dorset gamekeeper pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing parts of nine dead buzzards, six of which were shown to have been shot, keeping a loaded shotgun and ammunition unsecured and possession of two bottles of strychnine, two containers of cymag (illegal since 2005) and a packet of bendiocarb (an insecticide but widely used in illegal poisoning of raptors). This followed police investigation after the discovery of a dead red kite next to a dead rat which had been laced with poison. Remarkably, a charge of killing the red kite was dropped, which is like having a charge of murder dropped when the body was found on your premises, you had the murder weapon and a motive!
More remarkably still(?), the scene of crimes was the Shaftesbury estate, where the poisoned sea eagle was found and Dorset police, after pressure from Chris Loder MP, declined to investigate. See post #3. Prosecutions represent just the tiny tip of a very dirty iceberg - most illegal persecution of wildlife goes uninvestigated due to the difficulty of providing proof, e.g. three barn owls, a tawny owl and a red kite found dead in a ditch near Sleaford, or four hen harrier chicks being stamped to death.

A small good news story is that Claire Dinsdale, after being forced out of her investigative role in Dorset police, has joined the National Wildlife Crime Unit.
Click to expand...

Paul Allen has now received a suspended sentence and a fine of just over £2000.
That'll teach him and send out a message to other gamekeepers!
https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwo...-for-possession-of-shot-buzzards-rodenticides
 
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