Criminal proceedings continued at Elgin Sheriff Court on Friday against Scottish gamekeeper Stanley Gordon.
Mr Gordon, 60, of Cabrach, Moray, is facing a charge in connection with the alleged shooting of a hen harrier in June 2013.
Here’s a summary of what’s happened so far in this case:
Hearing #1 (19 May 2016): Case continued without plea until 16 June 2016.
Hearing #2 (16 June 2016): Case continued without plea until 14 July 2016.
Hearing #3 (14 July 2016): Case continued without plea until 11 August 2016.
Hearing #4 (11 August 2016): Case continued without plea until 1 September 2016.
Hearing #5 (1 September 2016): Mr Gordon enters a not guilty plea. A provisional trial date is set for 19 December 2016, with an intermediate diet set for 18 November 2016.
Hearing #6 (18 November 2016): Case adjourned for another intermediate diet on 2 December 2016.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Who’s paying for all this waste of court time?
Exactly my thoughts when I read yet another “proceedings continued…” post.
FFS! Why don’t they just get the job sorted in one go???
Waste of time all round.
Yawn, yawn again and again, another protracted indictment arranged by the good old boy and girl network that safeguards the shooting pseudo-industry. What do we all expect from a system heavily influenced by the landowning and shooting estate hierarchy. We can hardly get punitive enough sentences for crimes against humans, and with judiciary making blunders on sentencing on serious crimes such as murder and child abuse, thus wide-opening a door for a more lenient sentence, of which only a half will be served.
Adavanced thinkers such as I am, have rivetted animal welfare and the conservation of species, together as Siamese twins. Anna Turley, MP (Redcar)(Lab/Co-op, at 4.30 pm on 8 November 2016, begged to move, That this House has considered sentencing for animal cruelty. Ms Turley, God Bless Her, stated that there was an animal abuse crisis in this country, and that she was asking for support when she would present her Private Member’s Bill on 24 Februrary 2017. The discussion in the Commons can be found in Hansard, Volume 616 No 59, Parliamentary Debates Tuesday 8 November 2016. There you will read all about the extent of animal abuse in this country towards dogs, cats and whatever is being kept as a pet. Why should the hecatombed Mountain Hares and hundreds of thousands of Grouse, along with majestic Birds of Prey, be immune from joining the ranks of abused animals?
I think those who vigorously campaign on behalf of our Birds of Prey, can be purblind at times as to the crime of killing them, being really part of the great and diverse forms of inflicting injury and death to defenceless and innocent anials. World wide, there is a world outside Scotland and the Earth is round and goes round the Sun, animals are being persecuted by hunters who trophy shoot. Alaskan wildlife conservation and animal welfare groups are screaming for an end to the laws that permit a small group of mass shooters of Deer species, to kill on a grand and brutal scale, Bears with cubs; Wolves with pups, and any other carnivore likely to hunt Deer. This plea is backed by regular hunters who do not use helicopters, traps and poisons, as the egregious authorities are doing to appease the out of control gun lobby. Such powers were given in the Obama reign, so what is it going to be like under the Trump one?!
The mindset above is being experienced here, though on a smaller scale. To eradicate this dominance of shooting estates that kill wildlife, a united front is required that inform and not misinform as the enemy has being allowed to do, by creating an ethos of being guardians of the countryside and their gamekeepers killers of “vermin”. The public was told that it must not interfere with “country” matters, and just stay in our ghetto towns and cities. They even had their own political party, the Conservative Party, with a few supporters from among the ranks of the Labour and Liberal Parties, who liked “to shoot” or ride with the hounds, as one prominent Scottish Labour and his wife liked to do. We have a more enlightened public and throughout the world, in nearly every country, an ever-growing movement is develping that does not accept vile cruelty to animals and destruction of the natural environment. Scotland has to move itself into that movement, and to insist on its politicians must become more recipient of the pleas from the electorate, on such matters, and to ignore their respective party line when it clashes with humane issues. One thing is for sure, the gamekeepr [Ed: rest of comment deleted as defamatory]
RPUK. Do you wish to treat this as a reply to the above response or regard it as a completely new item? Is there any means of contacting you other than by making postings here?
On the topic of animal welfare and cruelty issues, may I draw your attention to this article from The Times:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pro-hunt-lobbyists-exert-worrying-influence-on-mps-wm9fc7lbs
The MP named is one and the same who played leading roles in the recent Petition Committee hearing and Parliamentary “Debate’ in response to Mark Avery’s petition to ban DGS. It would appear that just one person with a vested interest can wield massive influence in matters in which they would be banned from participating in a fair and just system. This item has prompted a petition against the proposal to remove the RSPCA’s powers to undertake prosecutions in animal welfare cases, which can be found here:
https://www.change.org/p/andrea-leadsom-the-rspca-should-retain-the-power-to-prosecute-animal-cruelty?recruiter=39369698&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsiveo
This begs the question as to whether the RSPCA powers referred to are akin to those which have been proposed for SSPCA officers, but on which no decision has yet been taken. It is obvious in the English case that the Countryside Alliance funded MP has concerns about the RSPCA’s very effective record in bringing such matters to court. Could it be that it is the hunting and shooting fraternity in Scotland which is exercising its influence to prevent the SSPCA being similarly effective, so ensuring that animal welfare cases are not brought to court because of the absence of prioritisation under the present system?
Dylanben, click on ‘Home’ on top left to find e-mail address.
Sorry ‘About’ not ‘home’.
[Ed: comment deleted. Please remember at this stage of proceedings the charge against the accused is only alleged and he has entered a not guilty plea. We need to wait for the court to decide his innocence or guilt]
What? It takes more than 6 – yes SIX – hearings to decide? [Ed: rest of this comment deleted]
Why do these specific wildlife crime cases always get drawn out like this….
Massive costs should be reclaimed from defendants being obstructive like this…
The penalties are usually in no relation to the cost…
Jack up the penalties
[Ed: The delays are standard in summary cases, not just restricted to wildlife crime cases, and not necessarily as a result of defendants being ‘obstructive’. Delays can be the result of both prosecution and defence. Worth remembering it took the Crown almost three years to bring charges in this case!]
To a layman such as myself, the complete system seems farcical.
Having been involved in reporting and prosecuting, cases can take ages to come to trial – I was appearing as a witness in cases 4 years after I’d left the job I was appearing for. The wheels of justice grind slowly
[Ed: comment deleted]
Having read the previous post on the vicarious Liability case, I had been wondering what was happening with this case. So, thank you RPuk, for your update. I will not tempt your editorial scissors by saying any more, and shall let the wheels of justice do their thing.
The wheels of justice look pretty well seized up to me.