Hunt members dramatically cleared of illegal foxhunting charge

A Kirby Bellars man and a former Quorn Hunt colleague were cleared of illegally hunting a fox with a pack of hounds in court this morning (Wednesday).
John Finnegan (left) and Rhys Matcham (right) outside Leicester Magistrates' Court, where they were on trial accused of breaching the 2004 Hunting Act

PHOTO: PA EMN-210825-132000001John Finnegan (left) and Rhys Matcham (right) outside Leicester Magistrates' Court, where they were on trial accused of breaching the 2004 Hunting Act

PHOTO: PA EMN-210825-132000001
John Finnegan (left) and Rhys Matcham (right) outside Leicester Magistrates' Court, where they were on trial accused of breaching the 2004 Hunting Act PHOTO: PA EMN-210825-132000001

Huntsman John ‘Ollie’ Finnegan went on trial at Leicester Magistrates Court this week with his whipper-in at the time, Rhys Matcham, accused of an offence under the 2004 Hunting Act.

But the case ended abruptly today after prosecutors reviewed the evidence of the main witness in the case.

Finnegan (36) and 30-year-old Matcham were both found not guilty after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted the case had no reasonable prospect of conviction.

The Crown had claimed footage filmed by the League Against Cruel Sports showed ‘a proper fox hunt going back to the olden days’.

But the first witness in the case, the League’s staff member Roger Swaine, told the court on Tuesday that he could not see where Matcham was looking when a fox was seen to emerge from a covert.

Defence lawyer Stephen Welford then asked Mr Swaine: “It’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that hounds were in that bit of covert, they had found an artificial trail...and a fox popped out. That is one possibility, is it not?”

Mr Swaine answered: “Yes.”

Explaining the Crown’s decision to drop the case, before Finnegan and Matcham had given evidence, prosecutor Mark Fielding said: “The Crown Prosecution Service have a duty to review the prospects of success of a matter at all times, up to and including the end of the case.

“Suffice to say, having listened to Mr Swaine giving clearly honest and truthful evidence in cross-examination, for which he is to be commended, my impression, which I communicated to the reviewing lawyer, was that this case no longer had a reasonable prospect of success.

“Bearing in mind what the Crown are asking the court to do is interpret actions of the hunt as we saw on the film, the concessions made by Mr Swaine...reduce the prospects of success such that there are no longer any reasonable prospects of success.”

Immediately after Mr Fielding’s comments, the chair of the three-strong magistrates’ bench entered not guilty verdicts on both defendants.

Finnegan, who lives at the premises of the Quorn Hunt in Kirby Bellars, and Matcham, of Badminton, south Gloucestershire, both denied illegally hunting a wild mammal with dogs on land near Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, on February 4 last year.

Martin Sims, director of investigations at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “We’re understandably disappointed with this result but we stand by the evidence we presented, which clearly shows hounds hunting a fox.

“While there are questions that need to be answered about the prosecution’s approach, it’s yet further confirmation that the Hunting Act needs to be strengthened so that it does what it’s supposed to - preventing foxes being chased by hounds.”