Sheriff takes time over first test of ban on fox hunting

Sheriff Kevin Drummond delayed delivering his verdict on Trevor Adams, 46, explaining it was the first prosecution of its kind and he wanted to study the legal arguments.

Adams - who was joint master of Scotland’s largest hunt, the Buccleuch - stood trial at Jedburgh Sheriff Court charged with deliberately hunting a fox with 20 dogs at Courthill, near Kelso, Roxburghshire, on 16 October, 2002.

The case is regarded as a test of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, introduced only two months before the alleged offence.

The court was told that Adams, who described himself as a self employed foxhounds master, was in charge of a group called the Fox Control Service. They offered their services to farmers free of charge.

A tenant farmer, Ian Hutcheson, 50, refused them entry to his land at Courthill and he called the police as he felt they were illegally hunting.

Under the new legislation hunts are banned from using packs of hounds to kill foxes. But the dogs can still be used to flush out foxes towards people with guns.

The procurator-fiscal, Graham Fraser, in cross-examining Adams, said:

"You went out there with a pack of 20 dogs to get that fox. If it was not shot you knew perfectly well the hounds would continue the chase."

Sheriff Drummond will deliver his verdict on Friday, 10 December.

Adams faces a fine of up to 5,000 or six months in jail if found guilty.