A gamekeeper will be sentenced at Nottinghamshire Magistrates Court today after he pleaded guilty to beating to death two buzzards that he caught inside a crow cage trap in Nottinghamshire in January 2021 (see here for previous blog). There are additional offences, including a firearms offence.
[Nottinghamshire Police visited the crime scene to collect evidence with the RSPB Investigations Team in January last year. Photo via Nottinghamshire Police Rural Crime Team].
I think we can expect to see extensive coverage of this case from the RSPB, including the video of the so-far-unnamed gamekeeper killing the buzzards, once sentencing has been handed down. I also understand there may be coverage on Channel 4 News this evening.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I’m sure we’re all hoping for a maximum sentence. If not it will demonstrate yet again that these crimes are inadequately dealt with, which of course further emboldens the perpetrators
Of course this is just another elaborately “faked” incident by the RSPB…just more “poisonous vitriol” for RPUK to go about “spewing” on social media. The sentence will likely be crap but that doesn’t matter in the bigger picture – more and more of the tip of that huge rotten iceberg is becoming visible to more and more people through the hard work of those involved in this case. Lets all give them a hand in finding the next case and resolve to keep a legal and discreet eye on the traps that many of us walk past and/or drive past every day. Across the country – that trap will not have been the only one to catch buzzards that day, and that one keeper will not have been the only keeper to kill a couple of buzzards that day…
Do something – get out there!
It will be interesting to compare this sentence to that handed down to the driver who deliberately killed one Canada Goose. ie the difference between a gamekeeper with his moneyed employer and a normal if cruel citizen.
I agree with Spaghnum Morose to get out there and do something such as keep an eye on traps . I do exactly that here in Angus , a raptor hotspot , and have done so for years .However now I employ a new approach . The idea came from a publication I picked up at the Perth Revive Conference last November. Before visiting any of my local glens I draw a map of my route and mark on it all the grit stations and traps that I encounter . Many traps are hidden to blend in with the surroundings but once you know what to look for it becomes easier to spot them . The results are quite disturbing . Trap numbers can be frightening ! I post them on Angus Glens Monitors , a Facebook page that I am involved in .
If it isn’t a slap on the wrist, a fine and costs that will be picked up by his employer (because he was “only doing his job”), I shall probably fall of my chair in astonishment.
Not only should the criminal be named but so should the sentencing magistrate so they can be held to account for their sentencing decisions. Obviously, I am already pessimistic about the result. I will lay odds that he has been told that if he pleads guilty that will be taken into consideration and there will be no jail time.
I am awaiting a meaningful sentence and ban from holding a firearm certificate. Crimes against the firearms act should have a mandatory ban.
Any bets on a sentence of “Slap on the hand and don’t do it again.”
Doug
Suspended sentence. No jail time. Gosh, I’m SO surprised. Insert eyeroll emoji here.