Legal proceedings continued at Preston Magistrates Court yesterday in the case against gamekeeper Timothy David Cowin, 44, who is alleged to have shot two protected short-eared owls in April 2017 at Whernside, Cumbria in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is further alleged he was in possession of items (a shotgun and an electronic calling device) capable of being used to kill wild birds (see here for first blog about this case).
At a case management hearing yesterday Mr Cowin was invited to enter a plea but was stopped by his defence lawyer, Michael Kenyon. There followed an extraordinarily fractious series of submissions by the defence and the CPS prosecutor, Ms Parker.
The defence argued that not all the paperwork had been received from the CPS, despite many requests, and that some of the paperwork that had been received was “defective in its wording” and some witness statements were incorrectly dated. The defence submitted that the case should be dismissed on these technicalities.
The prosecution argued that some papers hadn’t been served because of the uncertainty of the address that had been provided (Mr Kenyon’s home address as opposed to a legal company’s business address) and that some communication from the defence had not been answered promptly due to the prosecutor being on annual leave. The issue of missing paperwork and incorrectly dated statements had been raised with the police and the CPS was awaiting a response.
District Judge Goodwin, looking quite exasperated by this farcical and ill-tempered display, suggested the lawyers improve their communications with each other. She directed the CPS to review the evidence by 29 March 2018. Once reviewed and revised as appropriate, the defence was directed to submit skeleton arguments and provide documents in support. The CPS was directed to serve a skeleton argument in response and provide documents in support, to be lodged with the court by 26 April 2018.
Mr Cowin was released on unconditional bail and was told he must attend the next court hearing, scheduled for 11 May 2018.
UPDATE: 14 May 2018: Case against grouse moor gamekeeper Timothy Cowin part 3 (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
Wow, I’m getting confused by all these cases against gamekeepers.
Do you think that one of them might result in a conviction in 2018?
Not holding my breath.
Almost impossible in Scotland.
[Ed: comment deleted as libellous]
Just to cheer things up a little… On fb site ‘Springwatch Fans’ today, someone posted a clip of a Larssen trap. Lots of nice people are seeing one for the 1st time & getting VERY hot under the collar!
CPS f**king up xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx