Members of the National Trust, which had suspended hunting because of the police investigation into Mr Hankinson, voted to ban the sport a month after the verdict. Police have also launched investigations into a number of separate manhunts, two of which have since collapsed due to a lack of evidence.
Prosecutions involving hunting must be reconsidered
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said afterwards “the successful appeal removes any justification for either the ban on hunting by institutional landowners or the spate of trail hunting prosecutions that followed his original conviction. “Two prosecutions have already been withdrawn this year due to a lack of evidence and the CPS will now have to review all prosecutions involving hunting.” Mr Bonner said that since trail hunting began in 2005, when traditional hunting was banned, “there have been a small number of prosecutions involving hunting in that period”. He added: “As this successful appeal shows, police, the public and politicians need to be extremely cautious about believing false claims made by biased anti-hunting campaigners. “The fact that a small number of obsessive people make constant claims doesn’t prove anything.”
Webinar “possible for more than one interpretation”
Allowing his appeal at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Gregory Perrins said someone listening to the webinar – in which Mr Hankinson talked about building a “smoke screen” by opening up multiple pathways – might have thought “that he encouraged illegal hunting”. However, he pointed out that it was “capable of more than one interpretation” and Mr Hankinson’s explanation that it was to confuse the saboteurs was “not entirely without credibility”.
