Badger 'killed by accident'

A Telford man's two lurcher dogs killed a badger after accidentally coming across it, a court has been told.

Mark Paddock, of Aintree Close, Leegomery, denies hunting badgers by the aid of a bright light - known as lamping - between January 2005 and March 13 last year. Mr Clive Rees, defending, told the first day of Paddock's trial yesterday his two lurcher dogs, Sally and Buster, found the badger by accident.

He said there was nothing 37-year-old Paddock could do but, on humane grounds, encourage the dogs to kill the badger as quickly as possible.

However, badger expert Malcolm Ingham told Telford Magistrates Court it was possible for dogs to be called off a badger.

To illustrate that point, the court was shown video footage from an unrelated hunt which showed dogs being pulled off a badger by their owners.

Mr Ingham said he had been shown images found on Paddock's mobile phone, which the prosecution claim are incidents of badger hunting.

He said he believed one of the images showed Sally and Buster attacking or trying to attack a badger down a hole.

Mr Ingham, head ranger at Wirral Borough Council, dismissed a suggestion by Mr Rees the dogs may have simply been trying to get at an underground root.

The trial heard that, in an interview with an RSPCA inspector, Paddock had been asked why a book about badger hunting had been found at his former home in Coronation Drive, Donnington, when police executed a search warrant there in March last year.

He said he bought the book because it was a collector's item and he was interested in the use of terrier dogs. He denied he bought it to learn more about badger hunting.

He said injuries on Sally and Buster, which the prosecution contend were consistent with a fight with a badger, were old injuries.

He said as far as he knew neither Sally, who he did not own but was looking after for a friend, nor Buster had been in contact with badgers. He said he had never been involved in badger digging, had never killed a badger and had no specific interest in badgers.

The trial, in front of District Judge Nicolas Cartwright, continues.

By Iain St John