For being a hunt sab...

On Wednesday 2nd May two Brighton hunt sabs had the cases against them thrown out of Redhill Court. Both had been charged with aggravated trespass following crap arrests during a meet of the Old Surrey & Burstow Hunt on 3rd December 2011.

The judge ruled that for one defendant the prosecution hadn’t even put forward any evidence of trespass, nor that there were any actions which could be interpreted as aggravating the non-existent trespass.

The other sab was left with the farcical situation of the prosecution (realising at half time that they had no chance of a guilty verdict) offering no further evidence after the judge had ruled there was a case to answer. As the prosecutor didn’t have the authority to officially discontinue, the case had to carry on. Cue much head-scratching all round as a solution to ‘avoid any embarrassment’ was sought. In the end the defendant had to briefly take the stand, with even the judge almost feeding him lines, before being found not guilty.

Throughout the trial it was Surrey Police who received the most scrutiny and criticism from the judge and the investigating officer was probably the person most relieved not to have to endure the defence case.