Back in October 2019 a joint police and SSPCA Special Investigations Unit (SIU) raid was conducted at addresses at Macduff in Aberdeenshire and Millden Estate in Angus. These raids were part of an investigation into animal fighting.

Subsequently two individuals were reported for offences under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

The case of Liam Taylor of Macduff Aberdeenshire was first called on 10^th of September 2021 when he pleaded guilty without appearing. The case was continued for his personal appearance until 8^th of October and then again until 4^th of November when he was finally sentenced. See here  here and here.

The case of Rhys Owen Davies who was a gamekeeper at Millden Estate is somewhat more convoluted.  Davies’ case was initially scheduled to be heard on 27^th November 2020. A preliminary hearing was then set for 11^th May 2021 and subsequently a trial date was listed for 2^nd June 2021. On that date the case was continued until 3^rd December 2021 when it was again continued until 11^th April 2022 and then continued again until 5^th May 2022.

Yesterday 5^th May 2022 Davies pleaded guilty to keeping dogs for animal fighting and causing unnecessary suffering to animals. Sentencing has been set for 30^th June and the Sheriff has said that all options will be considered.

On 26^th November 2020, the day before Davies’ case was first due to be heard the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands Mairi Gougeon announced that the Scottish Government was ignoring the Werrity Committee’s advice and introducing licensing for driven grouse shooting estates. See here, here, here and here.

We are sure that after months of silence the Cabinet Secretary’s sudden statement to the Scottish Parliament  on the afternoon before Davies’ case was due to be heard was merely chance.

We are sure that delaying the final hearing of the case for the day before nationally important local council election results were announced was also merely chance.

Prestigious estate agents CKD Galbraith said when Millden was up for sale that it was “one of the finest sporting estates in Scotland” and “the Holy Grail of shooting”. Indeed it was so prestigious that Professor Alan Werrity was hosted there when compiling his report to the Scottish Government on Driven Grouse Shooting. Surely Mairi Gougeon’s sudden announcement on 26th November was not an attempt to head off a potential backlash had the case been heard on the 27th November?

This case raises serious questions. Davies is a young man who apparently won the British Association for Shooting and Conservation’s  Best NC Gamekeeping and Wildlife Conservation Student Award at Elmwood College in 2013 and was employed by the “Holy Grail” of grouse estates. So how and when did he get into such sadistic and criminal activities and who else was involved?

How was it that none of the staff on the prestigious estate on which he worked and lived reported the injuries to his dogs which were kept in open kennels passed every day by many estate staff? Did these highly experienced countryside managers not notice? Were none of his fellow workers or neighbours ever present when the dogs were out? Did they not see the injuries they had suffered and enquire about, or report them? Were the dogs used for estate work?

Was this individual who has admitted such sadistic crimes involved in Professor Werrity’s visit to Millden and was he involved in any of the Angus Glens Moorland Group’s ‘Estates Who Educate’ events involving children?

Many individuals and organisations will no doubt be asking these questions and others in the coming days. We wonder if there will be any answers or simply bland statements about ‘bad apples’.

In the meantime police enquiries into other matters which came to light during the raid are ongoing as is the SIU investigation into this sadistic gang of badger baiters of which these two cases are a small part.

We will of course be blogging about this case further.