A trial against a man accused of killing a goshawk at a pheasant-rearing farm in Wales has been discontinued.
Thomas Edward Jones, 38, was due to stand trial at Welshpool Magistrates Court yesterday after he previously pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing to the shooting and killing of a goshawk at Pentre Farm in northern Powys in July 2022, where tens of thousands of pheasants are reportedly reared for the game shooting industry (see here, here, here for previous blogs on this case).
The RSPB Investigations Team published a tweet yesterday with the following update:
‘Disappointingly, the trial today has been discontinued by the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], following the court’s refusal for an adjournment made by the CPS, who then deemed they were not in a position to continue with proceedings‘.
I don’t have any further detail about why the CPS wanted an adjournment or why the court refused to grant it.
Raptor Persecution UK 
This is pretty shocking and very disappointing. Wonder if any brown envelopes have been changing hands? It stinks!!!
But he pleaded guilty – [Ed: rest of comment deleted. He had pleaded NOT guilty]
Very very disappointing. Given the prevalence of Goshawks in much of Wales this may [Ed: rest of comment deleted as libellous]
Westminster and it’s collection of shooting fanatics are a little peeved at Wales and Scotland at the moment due to their Wildlife Initiatives. The bigger one is the longer a reach they have.
In an era heavily weighted towards the Defence, the Prosecution needs to be perfect in every way. They clearly were not. The offence was mid-2022 and we are now late 2023. To get to this point, the allegation must have passed the two CPS tests – the behaviour constituted an offence AND there was a realistic prospect of conviction. That it did is very positive.
The issue must have been post-Charge. The Defence may have cited abuse of process in the delay until now and/or in the issue that prompted the Discontinuance, and the Court has agreed.
Without more detail, I can say no more.
What always confuses me Gordon, is how pernickety they are when dealing with some classes of criminal offences and how free they asre with detail in others.
Absolutely disgusting like previously said stinks of brown envelopes nod nod wink wink.