Commons hunt protesters avoid jail

PRO-HUNTING campaigners who stormed the House of Commons chamber were yesterday convicted of a public order offence, but were spared jail.

The so-called Westminster Eight - who included rock star Bryan Ferry's son Otis - were each given an 18-month conditional discharge to deter them from further stunts.

They attacked the decision to prosecute them as a waste of public money and claimed that the case had been politically motivated.

Emerging from Bow Street Magistrates Court in London after a four-day trial, Ferry, 22, who wore a tie emblazoned with foxes, said: "It is a shame we had to go to these lengths to get our voices heard. The whole world now recognises what a corrupt government system we have got."

He said the fight against the ban on fox hunting would go on.

"We're certainly not going to live with it, and so there is going to be a very interesting next few years to see what the government tries to do about it," he said. "It is bad law and we're all going to be there to prove it."

Asked if he would carry out a similar protest, Ferry replied: "I don't want to alarm anyone."

The cost of the police inquiry and legal process is estimated to have run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Defendant Luke Tomlinson, 28, said: "It was a waste of public money to bring the case in the first place when we were just doing a peaceful demonstration. I think they have wasted a lot of public money on the case, probably for political reasons."

The Crown Prosecution Service defended the decision to bring the men to trial, insisting it was in the public interest.

In addition to Ferry and Tomlinson, the other six convicted men were David Redvers, 34, from Hartpury, Gloucestershire; Richard Wakeham, 36, from York; Nicholas Wood, 41, from Lacock, Wiltshire; John Holliday, 42, from Ledbury, Herefordshire; Robert Thame, 36, from Maidenhead, Berkshire; and Andrew Elliott, 43, from Ledbury, Herefordshire.