Shropshire huntmaster Otis Ferry has been charged with perverting the course of justice.

Ferry, 25, of Easton Mascott, near Shrewsbury, was arrested by police in Cirencester, Gloucester, yesterday after the adjournment of his trial on robbery and assault charges.

Police charged him overnight with perverting the course of justice and he was being held in custody pending an appearance at Cheltenham Magistrates Court today.

It is understood the new charge relates to one of the prosecution witnesses in the robbery and assault case which was yesterday delayed for at least four weeks.

At Gloucester crown court sitting in Cirencester yesterday Judge Martin Picton declined to give the jury any reasons for his decision to abandon the trial and adjourn the case.

He discharged the jury, which had been sworn in on Monday, but had since been kept out of court while legal discussions continued.

Huntsman and countryside campaigner Ferry was to be tried for allegedly attacking a hunt monitor and robbing another while they tried to film him at his sport at Lower Swell, near Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, last November.

Police and the Gloucestershire Magistrates court service have today confirmed that Mr Ferry now faces the new allegation of perverting the course of justice.