Killer of falcon to pay for training
Pigeon fancier Andrew Hutchison was found guilty before Christmas of shooting the bird with an air rifle.
Yesterday, when he appeared for sentence at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Hutchison, a 67-year-old retired miner with chronic lung disease, claimed he had felled it with a single blow after hurling a hammer at it as it attacked one of his racing birds.
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Hide AdHe then stuffed the falcon’s corpse into a bin bag and drove away with it. Its transmitter, and one severed leg, was eventually found dumped four miles from the scene of the crime.
Sheriff Craig McSherry fined Hutchison £350, and ordered him to pay £1,500 compensation to the bird’s owners, NBC Bird and Pest Solutions.