Category: 2024 persecution incidents

Scottish gamekeeper and former convicted sex offender Russell Douglas Mason, 49, attended a sentencing hearing at Perth Sheriff Court this morning, after pleading guilty last month to the brutal killing of a Goshawk that he battered to death inside a Crow cage trap on a shooting estate in Perthshire (see here for previous blog with case details).

Here is a press release from the RSPB, following sentencing:

GAMEKEEPER FROM PERTHSHIRE SHOOTING ESTATE FINED FOR BEATING PROTECTED BIRD OF PREY TO DEATH

• In February 2024, video footage gathered by the RSPB showed gamekeeper Russell Mason brutally killing a protected Goshawk whilst it was caught in a cage trap near Bridge of Cally, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
• Mason pleaded guilty to the illegal killing of the Goshawk and a firearms offence on 17 March 2026 and was sentenced today, at Perth Sheriff Court. He was given a 200-hour Community Payback Order for killing the Goshawk and fined £890 for firearm offences.
• Although cage traps can be legally operated under annual government licences, numerous investigations and convictions have demonstrated that these types of traps are frequently used unlawfully to catch and kill birds of prey on gamebird shooting estates in an effort to remove any potential threat to their gamebird stocks and to maximise gamebird numbers.

In early 2024, RSPB Investigations staff deployed a covert camera to monitor the use of a crow cage trap on the Milton of Drimmie Estate near Bridge of Cally, Perthshire. The footage recorded on 12 February 2024, showed a Goshawk, a specially protected bird of prey, enter the trap and fly around, unable to escape.

Later that day, Russell Mason, a gamekeeper employed by the estate, arrived at the trap in a vehicle. He then unlocked and entered the trap whilst carrying a large, long-handled net in one hand and a short stick in the other. He then captured the Goshawk in the net, pinning it against the ground, and began beating it with the stick. After striking the bird six times he can be seen prodding the bird’s body, then removing the now dead Goshawk from the net and placing it in a plastic bag. After picking up the net and stick, with the bird’s bagged remains held under his arm, he left the trap locking it behind him. He returned to the vehicle and left the scene.

The RSPB’s recording can be viewed below: WARNING, CONTAINS DISTRESSING FOOTAGE

Goshawks are a rare and elusive species. In the late 19^th Century Goshawks became extinct in the UK as a result of persecution associated with gamebird shooting and widespread deforestation. Though their population has been recovering in recent decades, Goshawks are still relatively scarce, with an estimated 700-1,200 breeding pairs in the UK. Despite their scarcity, they are regularly illegally killed, with 49 confirmed incidents recorded between 2015 and 2024 in the UK. Two thirds of these incidents occurred on land managed for gamebird shooting where birds of prey continue to be targeted to remove any perceived threat of predation to gamebird stocks despite full legal protection across the UK.

Crow cage traps can be operated legally to control stipulated corvid species (such as Carrion Crows) under the conditions of general licences, issued annually by the UK countries statutory nature conservation agencies. Permitted target species can be legally controlled for specific purposes including the conservation of other wild birds, flora or fauna, the protection of crops/livestock, or public health. As multiple previous cases have revealed, including some resulting in successful prosecutions, on some gamebird shooting estates crow cage traps are often illegally used to intentionally trap birds of prey that are subsequently killed.

Functioning like a large lobster pot, birds enter these large live-capture traps by way of an opening in the roof, often like a funnel. Once inside, it is impossible for a bird to escape. Non-target species, including birds of prey, are regularly and routinely trapped in these types of cage traps.

While under the general licence conditions, it is not an offence to catch a non-target species, it must be released unharmed within 24 hours, and at the time of discovery. However, many trap operators do not adhere to these conditions and will either kill trapped birds of prey or bag and remove them from site, potentially to be killed in another location. Both killing and taking a bird of prey is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

On 17 March 2026 at Perth Sheriff Court, Mason pleaded guilty to the illegal killing of a Goshawk. Sentencing took place today (24 April 2026). He was given a 200-hour Community Payback Order for killing the Goshawk and fined £890 for firearm offences.

This case marks the sixth successful conviction for Goshawk persecution in the UK since 2015. In all of these cases the individuals convicted were associated with the gamebird shooting industry when the crime was committed.

Ian Thomson, RSPB’s Investigations Manager said:

“Crimes such as this give unequivocal proof that these types of traps are incredibly effective at catching non-target species such as birds of prey, which are then routinely killed.

“We welcome the conviction of Mr Mason and are pleased that our video evidence was again key in detecting a crime against one of our rarest raptors and in securing this result. We are, however, disappointed that the penalty imposed will have little in the way of a deterrent effect on others considering committing similar offences.

“There are hundreds of these traps in use across our countryside, and this case shows, yet again, that the indiscriminate nature of such traps encourages their misuse and deliberate abuse; this in turn poses a significant threat to protected species.

“For those wanting to undertake licensed control of species such as crows, other more selective options are available, posing considerably less risk to non-target species such as protected birds of prey. We have been raising these concerns with the licensing authorities for over 30 years, and cases such as this again pose significant questions about the legitimacy of using indiscriminate cage traps in our countryside“.

The RSPB would like to thank Police Scotland, the Scottish SPCA, National Wildlife Crime Unit, the Wildlife Forensics team at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) and the Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for their roles in investigating and prosecuting this case.

Members of the public are urged to report any suspected incidents of bird of prey persecution to the police by calling 101 and by submitting a report to the RSPB by visiting www.rspb.org.uk/report-crimes or by calling the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101. Reports via the RSPB’s reporting form and RSPB Raptor Crime Hotline can be made anonymously.

ENDS

My commentary:

First of all, congratulations and thanks are due to the RSPB’s Investigations Team. This is the third successful prosecution for raptor persecution offences so far this year where covert video evidence provided by the RSPB has been pivotal to securing a conviction.

The other two cases were:

12 January 2026, Scarborough Magistrates’ Court: gamekeeper Thomas Munday pleaded guilty to battering to death a Buzzard that had been caught inside a Crow cage trap on a Pheasant shoot at Hovingham, North Yorkshire (here)

and

29 January 2026, York Magistrates’ Court: gamekeeper Racster Dingwall pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill a Hen Harrier as it came in to roost on a grouse moor on the Conistone & Grassington Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (here).

Secondly, congratulations and thanks are due to Police Scotland, RSPB, Scottish SPCA, National Wildlife Crime Unit, Wildlife Forensics team at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) and the Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit at the Crown Office & Fiscal Service for an exemplary investigation and prosecution. This is what effective partnership-working looks like.

However, congratulations and thanks are not due to the sentencing Sheriff. Mason’s sentence can only be described as derisory, given the circumstances of his offences. Trapping and then battering to death a supposedly protected species meets the threshold for a custodial sentence (e.g. see here for a similar case in Scotland where a gamekeeper was filmed trapping and then beating a Goshawk to death with a stick). Mason’s additional firearms offences should have seen him imprisoned.

Mitigation provided to the court by Mason’s defence agent included the fact that he’d lost his job, his home and his guns.

Some of us would argue that he should never have had a firearms and shotgun certificate anyway, given his previous conviction and placement on the sex offenders register. That’s hardly indicative of being of ‘good character’ and being entrusted to own guns.

As Ian Thomson pointed out in the RSPB press release, Mason’s sentence will be of no deterrent whatsoever. There will be other gamekeepers watching all this and who will decide that the risk is very much worth taking because the consequences are minimal. Mason may well have lost his job but I daresay he’ll find another one, in the same industry – there are plenty of examples of this.

If those committing raptor persecution offences continue to receive pitiful sentences, it shouldn’t be any surprise that these crimes will continue.

And what of the shooting industry itself? How will it respond? So far, all the shooting and gamekeeping organisations have remained silent about Mason’s conviction (see here), which is surprising given the industry’s repeated claims of having ‘zero tolerance’ for raptor persecution.

Where are their statements of condemnation?

Was Mason a member of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association? If so, has he now been expelled?

Was Mason a member of BASC? If so, has he now been expelled?

Was the Milton of Drimmie Estate a member of Scottish Land & Estates? If so, has it now been expelled?

It’ll be interesting to see whether there is now a prosecution for alleged vicarious liability against the estate. We’re also waiting to see whether NatureScot imposes a three-year General Licence restriction on the estate. It’s my understanding that consideration of this process was paused whilst the criminal prosecution against Mason was underway.

UPDATE 16.00hrs: Statement from Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) on conviction of Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason (here)

A Scottish gamekeeper who last month pleaded guilty to bludgeoning to death a trapped Goshawk on a shooting estate in Perthshire, is due to be sentenced tomorrow at Perth Sheriff Court.

Russell Douglas Mason, 49, was filmed covertly by the RSPB, beating a Goshawk to death with a stick after it became trapped inside a Crow cage trap on Cochrage Muir (Moor), believed to be part of the Milton of Drimmie and Strone estate near Blairgowrie, on 12 February 2024.

On the opening day of his trial on 17 March 2026, Mason changed his plea to guilty and also admitted to various firearms offences. Sentencing was deferred for background reports and it emerged Mason had previously been added to the sex offenders register.

So far, the gamebird shooting industry, which unconvincingly claims to have a zero tolerance policy for raptor persecution and immediate expulsion policies for anyone convicted of those crimes, has remained silent about Mason’s guilty plea (see here).

UPDATE 24 April 2026: Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason receives derisory sentence for brutal killing of Goshawk (here)

Further to last week’s news that Scottish gamekeeper and convicted sex offender Russell Mason had pleaded guilty to battering a trapped Goshawk to death on a shooting estate in Perthshire, in addition to firearms offences (see here), I’ve been looking to see how the game-shooting industry has responded to this latest conviction of a member of its community.

You’ll recall that this is the game-shooting industry whose organisations routinely state they have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards raptor persecution, and many of them are members of the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Raptor Group, in which case you’d think they’d be quick to condemn this latest crime, and reassure the public that if Mason and/or the estate was a member of any of these organisations they’ve now been expelled, right?

Six days on from Mason’s conviction, here’s how those shooting organisations have responded to the news:

Scottish Gamekeepers Association – silence

Scottish Land & Estates – silence

Scottish Association for Country Sports – silence

British Association for Shooting & Conservation – silence

Countryside Alliance – silence

Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust – silence

Perhaps they’re all waiting for Mason to be sentenced next month before they denounce his criminal activities? Although I can’t think of any reasonable argument for a delay.

Or perhaps they’ll wait for the inevitable public revulsion when the RSPB publishes the video nasty showing Mason bludgeoning the Goshawk to death, before they bother to comment?

Their current collective silence speaks volumes.

Further to yesterday’s news that Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason, 49, had pleaded guilty to battering a trapped Goshawk to death on a shooting estate in Perthshire (see here), the Daily Record has published more detail about this case, which is quite disturbing.

The article is reproduced below in case this URL is broken/removed at a later date.

Russell Mason, 49, lured the protected goshawk into a baited trap before battering it several times with a cosh to cause its agonising death.

He was also found to have left nearly 200 rounds of live ammunition lying around in his bedroom and unsecured within his Polaris Ranger vehicle.

Fiscal depute Karon Rollo told Perth Sheriff Court: “Goshawks are rare birds of prey. They hunt birds and small animals. They have a wingspan of up to four feet and weigh between two and three pounds.

“They were persecuted to extinction in Scotland in the last century, but have been reintroduced, with now around 100 breeding pairs in existence.

“A crow cage trap was visited by RSPB staff on 9 January 2024. At the time this trap was set, it had a meat bait, and the door was chained and padlocked shut.

“It had a sign on the trap stating that the Scottish Government pays the estate to catch carrion crows from 1 March to 30 June to increase the chick survival rates for conservation-listed bird species.

“To continue observations and continue with this research, it was decided to install a continuous recording static camera covering this crow cage trap“.

She said RSPB staff visited the camera several times to review the captured footage and became aware of a male visiting the trap on 12 February 2024.

“At this time there was a goshawk and a crow in the trap,” Ms Rollo said. “The male opened and entered the trap. After entering he used a hand-held net to capture the goshawk and put it to the ground.

“He then struck the bird six times with a cosh. He placed the bird into a carrier bag, rolled it up and put the package under his arm.

“He left the trap, placed the net in the back of the vehicle and the bag in the cab. He locked the trap and drove off“.

The prosecutor said: “The male was identified from the footage by police officers, who knew him as being gamekeeper Russell Mason. The crow cage trap number related to the accused.

“Footage on other dates, including him putting a decoy bird in the trap, confirmed his identity. An avian vet specialising in raptors was shown the footage.

“He opined that the goshawk looked healthy and was exhibiting the normal behaviour of a captured raptor. Goshawks, in his experience, as ‘particularly flighty and stressy birds’ and this one was no exception.

“He describes it as showing a man beating a goshawk to death with a cudgel with the bird having been first netted within a crow cage trap.

“He states there were six blows to the body, which may have caused broken wings or rib fractures during the trauma, and that it was quite obviously not killed outright with one blow.

“He is of the view that it is extremely unlikely that it would have been lying passively in the net and therefore there is a high possibility that it would have sustained painful fractures and injuries before dying“.

A search of Mason’s cottage found unsecured ammunition, along with clothes matching those seen on the CCTV footage. A bag and cosh were found in his vehicle.

The bag was analysed and found to have goshawk DNA on it. The search team recovered 195 illegally stored rounds of ammunition.

Mason admitted intentionally or recklessly killing a goshawk on 12 February 2024 by seizing it with a net before repeatedly striking it with a cosh on Cochrage Moor, Bridge of Cally, Perthshire.

He also admitted breaching the terms of his firearms certificate by failing to store ammunition securely.

Sentence on Mason was deferred for the preparation of social work reports until next month by Sheriff Alison McKay and he was granted bail.

Mason was previously placed on the sex offenders register after being spotted carrying out a solo sex act in his car by a resident of a sheltered housing complex.

He was spotted by an elderly woman with his trousers down as he sat in the car beside a path used by children to walk to and from school.

When officers told Mason they were at the scene to investigate reports of someone masturbating in a car, he said: “That was me.”

Mason admitted carrying out an act of public indecency outside the sheltered housing complex in Harriet Court, Blairgowrie, and was placed on the register for a year.

ENDS

A reminder – sentencing for Mason’s latest convictions (wildlife crime & firearms offences) has been deferred until 24 April 2026 for background reports.

UPDATE 23 March 2026: Game-shooting industry’s response to the recent conviction of Perthshire gamekeeper Russell Mason (here)

UPDATE 24 April 2026: Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason receives derisory sentence for brutal killing of Goshawk (here)