Warning: This item contains distressing images

Jimmy Price, 25, of Forstal Farm, Well Street, Loose, was arrested by police in Marsh Lane, Felixstowe, in November 2018, after they received reports of four men hare-coursing. A joint police/RSPCA investigation discovered sickening footage of animal cruelty on his mobile ‘phone.

RSPCA inspector Pippa Boyd told Medway Magistrates Court that she had found a number of images from various dates in October and November last year relating to dogs being used to chase a badger and hares, an image of a dog biting a deer’s neck, as well as the video of the killing of a second deer which had its throat cut.

The court was shown the sickening footage in which Price stabs the deer several times in the neck but doesn’t kill it. A second man then takes over and saws at the animal’s neck with a blunt knife until he succeeds in cutting the animal’s throat. The deer is then left to bleed to death.The excited voices of four or five men yelling encouragement are heard.

Insp Boyd also found WhatsApp messages revealing details of an illegal hare-coursing competition, in which entrants paid £100 to take part, with an engraved cup and £1,000 in prize money going to the winner who could produce evidence of having killed the most hares.

Price initially faced nine charges relating to breaches of the Hunting Act, the Deer Act and the Wildlife and Countryside Act, all of which he denied.

Prosecuting for the RSPCA, Rowan Morton was allowed to introduce evidence of Price’s bad character – that he had three previous convictions related to causing unnecessary suffering to dogs.

Magistrates found Price guilty of four counts – two concerning the killing of a deer, and two concerning the killing of a hare – where they were certain there was clear photographic evidence of Price’s involvement. The conviction put Price in breach of a 90 day suspended sentence imposed in March 2018 after his conviction on two counts of theft and one of attempted theft. Because Price is due to appear in court again in January along with two other men to answer further charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog and horses the magistrates deferred sentencing on the current convictions until the completion of the next trial on January 10.

A report by Alan Smith can be read at Kent Online here and the sickening video can be seen here.