Dorset hunt riders failed to stop fox pursuit, court told

A fox broke cover from the field and ran into a wood, magistrates were told.

Mr Sims, a former head of the police National Wildlife Crime Unit, said: “Nothing appears to be done to stop the hounds in any shape or form as they come across.”

He said the defendants would have known the dogs had picked up a scent from the hounds’ high-pitched cries.

In a police interview read to the court, Mr Lyle, of Bryanston, said he did not remember hunting a fox that day.

The huntsman-master, who was in charge of the hounds, told police the riders were “containing the scene to see what is going on”, the court heard.

Mr Boundy, of Exford, Somerset, told police the riders were engaged in legal trail hunting, which involves following a scent laid along a pre-arranged course.

In the interview, PC Sebastian Haggett of Dorset Police asked him why the dogs veered suddenly in the video.

“It depends on where the trail was laid”, the whipper-in replied.

The drone footage showed a pack of hounds trying to squeeze through a narrow gap in a wire fence to enter the wood, the court was told.

Mr Boundy was asked by the officer whether it was normal to lay a trail through a fence.

The defendant replied: “One-hundred per cent. Trail hunting would try to mimic the line a fox would take.”

The court was also shown footage, released by the hunt, of a man using fox urine to lay a trail for the hunt that day.

On Monday, co-defendant Mark Pearson, 64, of Little Hanford near Child Okeford, was told no evidence would be offered against him.

The trial continues.