FROM WILD JUSTICE — AN INTERESTING READ ON HEN HARRIER PERSECUTION

Good morning, Today’s newsletter contains an update on two court cases, neither of which directly involves us (quite unusually), but are of interest to us and, we believe, might be of interest to you. Gamekeeper pleads guilty to conspiring to illegally kill a Hen Harrier Last week at York Magistrates’ Court, a gamekeeper pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill a Hen Harrier in what is the first ever successful prosecution in England relating to Hen Harrier persecution. This is significant. Convictions for raptor persecution are difficult to achieve. These offences often take place in remote areas where the actions of the perpetrators are rarely witnessed. It means that, far too often, the criminal burden of proof (i.e. beyond a reasonable doubt) to demonstrate who committed the offence can’t be reached, and so people who are very likely guilty of illegally killing birds of prey get away with it. This case is an exception. In 2024, evidence was uncovered by the hard and diligent work of the RSPB’s Investigations Team, following intelligence they’d received in relation to suspicious activities on a grouse moor on the Conistone and Grassington Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. After installing a covert camera, the RSPB obtained audio and video evidence of gamekeeper Racster Dingwall (and two armed accomplices) plotting over radios the shooting of Hen Harriers, as well as conversations about birds they’d apparently already killed that day (a Buzzard and a Raven). Recorded near a Hen Harrier roost site, the covert recordings captured the trio’s radio conversation as they spotted a Hen Harrier with a ‘box’ on it – code referring to a satellite tag. Other code used by the group included ‘Jets’ (referring to Hen Harriers), ‘Bombers’ (referring to Buzzards) and ‘Nolling’ (to kill a bird of prey). On this occasion, the satellite tag (‘box’) acted as a protective deterrent, with the trio deciding not to kill the Hen Harrier so as not to attract unwanted attention from researchers monitoring the tag’s data and subsequently, enforcement authorities. Instead, they decided to fire warning shots to scare the bird away. Later on, another Hen Harrier was spotted, this time without a tag. In the RSPB’s footage, Dingwall was seen loading his gun and walking towards the roost site. A single shot was heard (off camera). Congratulatory comments could be heard over the radios before they all left the area. Predictably, the defence tried to have the case thrown out on a legal technicality (relating to the RSPB’s authority to install a covert camera on private land). This argument has been used with some success, and some failure, in previous cases. Thankfully, this time the valuable evidence was ruled to have been collected lawfully by the RSPB and was accepted by the judge as admissible evidence. Dingwall faced two charges: Possession of an article capable of being used to commit a summary offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. Encouraging and assisting in the commission of a summary offence, believing it would be committed. On 29 January 2026, on what had been the first day of a scheduled two-day trial, (now former) Head Gamekeeper Racster Dingwall, 35, pleaded guilty to both offences. He was fined £400 for each offence, plus a surcharge of £320, plus £400 costs, totalling £1520. Our thoughts… Whilst the work of dedicated groups and individuals, like those of the RSPB and others, have documented the ongoing illegal killing of hundreds of birds of prey over many years (including 147 Hen Harriers confirmed ‘missing’ or illegally killed since 2018), it’s not often that a conviction is achieved – a level of injustice that infuriates many of us, and indeed was one of the motivating factors for us when we decided to set up Wild Justice in the first place. This case, supported by high quality evidence, has shown, yet again, that illegal persecution is an ongoing and serious threat to birds of prey, despite the gamebird shooting industry’s attempts to gaslight the public into believing the opposite. The majority of Hen Harrier persecution incidents are known to take place on, or next to, driven grouse moors, yet many supporters and participants of this ‘sport’ regularly deny that the industry has a problem (see a video from Chris Packham here, and some quotes from the industry below). We welcome the conviction in this case although we consider the sentence to be derisory, not helped, in our view, by the Crown Prosecution Service’s failure to provide the court with background context about the widespread persecution of this species and the impact this is having on its conservation status. It highlights the need for improved national sentencing guidelines for judges who may rarely encounter wildlife crime offending and therefore may not understand the wider picture. We do, though, congratulate the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) for helping to secure a successful prosecution under the Serious Crime Act. This was a novel and welcome approach and we hope to see more of it. And whilst Dingwall’s fine is unlikely to act as a deterrent to other would-be raptor persecutors, it’s highly likely that the knowledge that the RSPB can now capture audio and visual footage of such high quality, will lead to offenders looking over their shoulders and thinking twice. You can read the RSPB’s press release on the Grassington case here, and some more detailed notes on the sentencing aspects of the case on the Raptor Persecution UK blog here. Legal challenge against new burning regulations thrown out of court. In other good news, the Moorland Association’s application to the High Court for a judicial review relating to Defra’s new burning regulations has been refused. The Moorland Association (a lobby group for grouse moor owners in England) sought to challenge the process by which Defra introduced the Heather & Grass etc Burning (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, which restrict the burning of vegetation over deep peat. After a hearing in London’s High Court on 27 January 2026, Mrs Justice Lieven refused all of the grounds of challenge put forward by the Moorland Association. We’re especially pleased with this decision as burning on peatland is an issue of huge concern. You may remember in spring 2025 we asked you to respond to a government consultation on this very topic, encouraging answers that asked for the strongest restrictions possible when it came to burning on precious peatland. By September 2025, the government announced a change in the rules for burning heather and grass on peatland, redefining ‘deep peat’ as 30cm in depth (previously 40cm), and therefore protecting an additional ~450,000ha of this precious habitat from the damaging practice. We’ve since heard that the Moorland Association intends to appeal last week’s court ruling. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this and will of course keep you updated. That's it for now, we'll be back in touch soon. Thank you, Wild Justice (CEO: Bob Elliot. Directors: Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay). This is the 261st Wild Justice newsletter. This email was sent to you because you subscribed to it through the Wild Justice website or through an e-action or a petition where you ticked a box. Thank you. We will only use your personal details to send you the Wild Justice newsletter. We will not give or sell your details to anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time: there is an unsubscribe button at the foot of this email or you can reply to this email and ask us to remove you from the list (the former will happen immediately, the latter might take a few days). 124, City Road London Greater London EC1V 2NX UNITED KINGDOM Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options