A former gamekeeper has been sentenced after being found guilty of two wildlife crime offences relating to the digging and blocking of a badger sett in Fife.
Dylan Boyle, 52, from Avonbridge, Falkirk, had been filmed on 10 January 2023 by a field officer from the League Against Cruel Sports who was monitoring the activities of the Fife Fox Hunt on farmland near Cupar, which terrier man Boyle was operating alongside that day.
Footage showed Boyle digging in to an active badger sett with a spade and deliberately blocking entrances to the sett with rocks, nets and earth using a spade. A fox that bolted from the sett was shot and killed.
Boyle had pleaded not guilty to a number of wildlife crime offences and faced trial at Kirkaldy Sheriff Court in September 2024. Boyle’s defence team relied on testimony from an expert witness who happened to be the ‘chief’ of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association’s ‘training centre’. That expert witness reportedly told the court that he’d viewed the footage of Boyle and had ‘not seen anything wrong’ in Boyle’s actions of deliberately interfering with an active badger sett, contrary to the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.
That is deeply concerning given the SGA’s positioning to be a training provider for those operating under the new Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.
Boyle told the court that it wasn’t an active badger sett and that badgers ‘must have moved in overnight’ the evening after Boyle had been filmed.
Boyle’s implausible explanation was not accepted by the court and he was found guilty of two offences but sentencing was deferred for six months for Boyle ‘to be on good behaviour’ (see here).
Appearing for sentencing at Kirkaldy Sheriff Court last week, Sheriff Mark Allen fined Boyle a pathetic £400 after hearing he had ‘been of good behaviour’ since his conviction.
Penalties for interfering with a badger sett include a maximum of 12 months imprisonment and / or a £40,000 fine.
Robbie Marsland, Director of the League Against Cruel Sports in Scotland said:
“Despite Scotland having some of the strongest animal welfare legislation in the UK, the courts too often issue modest penalties for wildlife crimes.
“Mr. Boyle’s actions demonstrated wanton cruelty and a disregard for the law but sentences like this provide little deterrent to those who harm wildlife.
“If we are serious about protecting Scotland’s wildlife, meaningful penalties that reflect the severity of these crimes are required to serve as a deterrent.
“While this case should remind those who harm wildlife that our cameras are everywhere, it should also prompt a serious reconsideration of how our justice system responds to animal cruelty“.
Raptor Persecution UK 
it has been clear for years that any members xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx are complicit and part of the organised criminal conspiracy in relation to wildlife crime, along with the xxxxxxx. Whilst it is pleasing that the explanation for the offence was not accepted the sentence was pathetic.
[Ed: Comment moderated as libellous]
Another example where the lack of a Scottish Unduly Lenient Sentencing Scheme prevents the Scottish public from having the right to officially complain about any sentence for undue leniency, let alone for one involving wildlife and animal abuse.
Why?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cdn625q1v56t
https://www.gov.uk/ask-crown-court-sentence-review#:~:text=You%20can%20ask%20for%20someone's,controlling%20and%20coercive%20behaviour
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/outcome-of-unduly-lenient-sentence-referrals
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/unduly-lenient-sentence-scheme/
We cannot rely upon lawyers and the legal profession to set wildlife crime and animal abuse sentences: just look at the Law Society of Scotland’s feeble official response to the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill…
A list of ‘Don’t knows’ and one outright ‘No’
https://www.lawscot.org.uk/media/wmbg2a4f/2023-05-05-rur-consultation-wildlife-management-and-muirburn-scotland-bill.pdf
Another one receiving a very stiff telling off and severe beating with a soft cushion. God I despair.
The chances of being caught are very low, and the penalty if caught are very low too.Keep pushing.
UK is not a serious country when it comes to tackling wildlife crime
The obligatory slap on the wrist and ‘don’t be a naughty boy (if you are don’t get caught)’ by our pathetic judiciary once again.
Those who’s hard work gets these animal murderers to court must despair at the meek sentences handed out time and time again, wherever in the UK
So true, oj55. And other commentators.
And Jimmy – quite right.
I find it infuriating that this country brags of being a nation of animal lovers – we only seem to bother about companion animals, at best.
And many other nations have caught us up in various spheres of action and don’t make a palaver about it.
Thanks to everyone here for caring – and carrying on.
All of your valid comments it’s pathetic this country is a joke no protection for wildlife scumbags lowlife rule no justice for these poor critters. I really do despair.
Half way through the trial, before all the evidence had been seen and heard, the defense successfully managed to persuade Sheriff Mark Allan to drop the serious charge of entering a dog into an active badger sett (The film shown in court showed that Boyle was following a dog underground with a tracking locator). However, towards the end of the trial and after hearing the full case, it was clear, and accepted by the Sheriff, that a dog had indeed been entered into the badger sett. Boyle even admitted to it in his evidence. The charge was not re-instated, and astonishingly, during the Sheriff’s summing up, now aware that a dog had been put underground, Mark Allan actually commended the defense lawyer for his skillful way in which he was able to have the charge of entering a dog into an active sett dropped.