CELEBRITY chef Clarissa Dickson Wright and sporting baronet Sir Mark Prescott face court over hare coursing allegations
Old Codger
CELEBRITY chef Clarissa Dickson Wright and sporting baronet Sir Mark
Prescott are to face private prosecution for allegedly hunting hares
with dogs in North Yorkshire.
Details of the case emerged yesterday following a separate hearing at
Scarborough Magistrates' Court involving five other defendants –
including Yorkshire's former champion racehorse trainer Peter
Easterby.
Easterby, 78 – charged under his birth name of Miles Henry Easterby –
of Habton Grange Farm, Great Habton, is accused of permitting land to
be used for hare coursing and attending hare coursing.
Elizabeth Dixon, 44, of Appleton-le-Street, near Malton, is charged
with knowingly facilitating a hare coursing event, while John Shaw,
54, of Welburn Manor, Welburn, near Kirkbymoorside, faces an
allegation of permitting land to be used for hare coursing
Andrew Lund-Watkinson, 56, of Pine View Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe,
and Jacqueline Teal, 42, of Scarborough Road, Norton, are accused of
attending a hare coursing event.
The charges relate to an alleged hare coursing event at Easterby's
farm at Great Habton, North Yorkshire, in March of this year
The case was adjourned until November 19 at Scarborough.
During yesterday's proceedings brought by the Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS) it emerged a separate private prosecution is being
brought by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
The Scarborough court later confirmed the defendants were Clarissa
Dickson Wright, the former barrister who found fame as one half of the
former Two Fat Ladies celebrity chef team, and Sir Mark Prescott.
Court officials stated each defendant faces four charges – including
two allegations of hunting hares with dogs, one at
Nunnington on March 2 this year, and another at Amotherby, near
Malton, on March 3. The other two charges relate to their alleged
attendance at the events.
A spokesman for the IFAW said: "All we can confirm at the moment is
that we are taking a private prosecution against two individuals."
The charity said legal reasons preventing it explaining why the case,
due to be heard at Scarborough on November 9, was not being dealt with
by the CPS.
Hare coursing, using two dogs to chase a live hare, was outlawed by
the Hunting Act.
Sir Mark, 59, is a Newmarket-based trainer who has groomed more than
1,200 winners since 1970. He said he was unable to comment because he
had not seen anything in writing and had only heard the charges read
out over the telephone yesterday morning.
Dickson Wright, 60, who lives in the village of Inveresk in East
Lothian, could not be contacted yesterday.
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Taken From:
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Celebrity-chef-faces-court-over.3228239.jp