I was found guilty yesturday of section 69 of the Criminal Justice Act 1994 failing to leave land when ordered to do so by the senior officer present who had reasonable grounds to suspect that I would interfere with a legal activity. Apparently the hounds in full cry crashing through undergrowth being hunted on is legal because no police officer had seen a fox and those nice people in red coats do not lie.

I will not go into details because I will probably appeal and then I will indulge those who may be interested with the full gory details of police incompetance, bias and downright laziness. Suffice to say what we all know already i.e that doing what the state asks us i.e to lobby nicely and write letters is simply abdicating responsibility to a legal system that simply cannot be bothered to enforce the law.

For over 100 years good folk have worked bloody hard to get a ban on the statute book, they succeeded and then it became obvious that the police were too lazy, stupid and poorly trained to actually bother to enforce it and so sabs and monitors gave up their time, money and risked their safety to gather evidence and deter hunts from killing. Whilst the police and CPS continue to come up with the pathetic excuse that prosecuting hunters is not in the public interest no matter what they have done including trying to run people over the same is apparently not true of anyone who is opposed to hunting. In my case Operation Rumble were involved which incleded CID, no expense spared by Thames Valley Police in their sychophancy towards the hunt.

In my case as many people know I have some experience of hunting and used to be a very keen hunt supporter when I was younger hunting regularily with many different packs, helping at kennels, going out on hound exercise, etc. Shockingly for this trail I worked out that for 28 years I have been attending hunts as a supporter, observer, monitor and sab from the Cumbrian fells, to Exmoor, to the fens, the Cotswolds and arable fields of Essex (beginning to feel quite old now). I made a hard decision as the Criminal Justice Act came into force to do the right thing and fight against the evil which I had been part of. I procastinated long and hard and lamented over turning my back on some good friends 80 of whom I wrote to at some length explaining why I had become vegan and anti hunt but it was the best decision I ever made. I have no interest in attacking hunts because I think that there are "toffs" present, nor because I am an ignorant "townie", all in all I am not interested in anything other than the huntsman, the terrierman and the hounds who will hunt and kill the hunted creature. My experience and knowledge is apparently of less worth than some bumbling ignoramous of a police officer who has been present at 3 hunt meets who is thick enough to believe everything he is told by someone wearing a red coat with nice shiny buttons.

None of this is new and of course this is maybe Karma for my past sins although in the scheme of this current climate a £400 costs order and conditional discharge is hardly anything to cry about. The patronising drivel from the judge about how this could not have been an illegal hunt because a police officer did not see a fox has actually turned my anger to pity for him, at one point I actually thought that they must have kidnapped his mother. He has pointed me in the right direction and rekindled my wrath, I will be paying far more attention to hunts now and will be far more active in this field. He has also illustrated very clearly that the efforts of anti hunt campaigners for over 100 years to achieve a ban was for nought. Lobbying nicely, getting new laws what was the point when the police continue to doff their caps and not just ignore a crime which takes place in front of them but arresting those who are trying to assist the victim of that crime? The judge in this case has reinforced the point made in countless courtrooms that the law is to protect the powerful from those who criticise them, nothing to do with fairness, justice or the facts. Hunted animals have no-one but us, quite frankly the CPS and the police are only concerned with protecting hunts from anyone who might film something inconvienient.

In the meantime I will continue to treat Operation Rumble with a mix of dislike, mistrust and revulsion and use the greatest weapons we have indefatigubility, tenacity and staying power. As to why I do not love the police a point which came up a few times well one of them did smash me up so badly that 9 years on I am still unable to work full time, I still cannot lie for any length of time on my left side, I have a permanent limp and am still in pain and his colleagues threatened witnesses for him who were not activists but passers by. I think that hatred and bitterness are not constructive and I do make the effort to be objective with individual police officers but I will never trust any one of them. Maybe the judge and prosecution lawyer could ask themselves if they had been so badly injured by a police officer that they could have died, then raided repeatedly, threatened, hit and persecuted over many years, when repeatedly complaints about illegal hunting, assaults and abuse have not only been ignored but used to gather intelligence against animal rights activists whether they would be so blase in their assumption that the police are an impartial and just body who we should all meekly trust to act on our behalf!

I am disgusted with everyone in this case including the judge, the CPS lawyer who pushed this through and most of all Operation Rumble. I am not ashamed to add this conviction to my collection it is testimony to the fact that I stopped indulging in cruelty and have actually been part of the fight against atrocities to wild animals. Those who prosecute sabs and monitors on the other hand have every reason to hang their heads in shame corruption, incompetance, fear, obeying orders, who really knows but they really should not expect anything nearing respect from any of us.