Almost a month ago (7 April 2025) a person was seen to be deliberately walking over three peregrine eggs in a nest tray on the roof of St Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire, crushing the eggs. The incident was caught on the Cathedral’s livestream nest camera and the following day Hertfordshire Police said a man was ‘helping with enquiries’ (see here).
In an article posted online last week (28 April) by the St Albans Times,
‘Herts police are working with partners at St Albans Cathedral and the National Wildlife Crime Unit to look into the incident, and officers from the Rural Operational Support Team spoke to a man to assist with their enquiries, but nobody has been charged at this time.
A spokesperson for Herts Constabulary would only confirm today that the investigation is still ongoing‘.
UPDATE 9th May 2025: Peregrines lay second clutch of eggs at St Albans Cathedral as police continue investigation into destruction of first clutch (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
This is a ridiculous situation, surely access to the site must be limited to a small number of authorized people? There must be a very good reason why we are not learning about what happened?
I wouldn’t say “a very good reason” necessarily. There were immediate rumours that it was someone with ready access to all areas in the building. Dare I say that it always takes forever for the Church authorities to do anything, before even mentioning potential police action.
If, and When this evil criminal is caught and charged and finally sentenced, the police and courts should get to the bottom of why he did it. I believe he was doing it on behalf of local hunts people and/or local shooting estates. He may be a gamekeeper, xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx, fawning to their landowner bosses.
Having established who he is, and who his masters are, they should be xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
It’s probably highly unlikely to be someone motivated by hunting/shooting (although not impossible). Much more likely to be a pigeon racer in that setting.
I imagine that we would have heard by now if the adults had stayed around and re-laid.
These birds have recycled and laid two more eggs, BBC news. Hopefully there will be better protection this time?