A member of the Old Berkshire hunt has plead guilty to a charge of assault by beating, after she attacked a hunt saboteur with her riding crop.
On 15th December 2012 members of the Berkshire and North Downs hunt saboteur groups attended a meet of the old Berkshire fox hunt near Ashbury. After listening to too much Countryside Alliance propaganda, Gemma Brooking seemed to think it was illegal for the sabs to film with her daughter in the shot. So the mother attacked the sabs and tried to take the camera, while her daughter was screaming and sobbing for her to stop. The camera survived to catch the whole incident on film. She was ordered to pay costs and fines totaling £260 at Oxford Magistrates Court on 11th April. Brooking is the 324th person from an organised hunt to be convicted or cautioned since 1990. Hunt sabs use video cameras to deter and record illegal hunting and hunt violence.
Last week (17th), Nick Bycroft, huntsman at the Crawley and Horsham Hunt was ordered to pay £150 after he plead guilty to using a riding crop to cause criminal damage to a hunt saboteur's vehicle. In November 2012 he galloped his horse recklessly on the road, came alongside the Landrover swearing, tried smashing the driver's window and failing that smashed the wing mirror. Again, the sabs calmly filmed it all and carried on. Bycroft wasn't arrested at the time but was summoned to a police station later.
The Crawley and Horsham hunt were convicted last year of illegal hunting, hunt a very small territory and are apparently struggling for cash.
Videos of both riding crop attacks at http://hsa.enviroweb.org/index.php/news/press-releases