A BURY huntsman whose horse trampled a fox was cleared of cruelty in a landmark case. Magistrate Mr Jonathon Finestein cleared huntsman Alex Sneddon (pictured) (61) of the Holcombe Harriers, of cruelty under the Wild Mammals Protection Act.

The magistrate, sitting at Rossendale, ruled that the prosecution had not satisfied him beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Sneddon had intended to inflict undue suffering on the animal.

The private prosecution was brought by 26-year-old Edmund Shephard , a lorry driver, who witnessed the incident on the moors above Rossendale during a meet in November 1996.

Both sides conceded that Mr Sneddon's horse had trampled the fox and Mr Finestein said he accepted the prosecution evidence had been given without any malice.

But he said the reality of the situation was that Mr Sneddon's horse was excited by the crowd of people and the noise and could not be controlled. He said that the chase was unusual in that it was short and protesters and others arrived on the scene to witness the kill.

He told the court: "Mr Sneddon had been a huntsman for over 40 years. He had been subjected to considerable provocation and had never responded or done anything to cause deliberate harm to a fox. On this occasion his actions were not deliberate. "It's true that the fox did sustain harm and must have suffered considerable pain but I don't find any evidence that what Mr Sneddon did was a deliberate act as a result of which intentional harm was caused to this fox."

Mr Sneddon, of Kirklees, Tottington, Bury denied a charge of inflicting unnecessary suffering in the first case to be brought against a huntsman under the 1996 Act.

After the two-day hearing in Rawtenstall, Mr Jefffrey Olstead, of the Countryside Alliance (formerly the British Field Sports Association) said the Holcombe Harriers were delighted with the result.

He said: "The evidence was never strong enough to persuade the authorities that there was a case to answer. This was a private prosecution brought by a person whose motive was clearly to embarrass the hunt, and the court's time has been wasted for a political gesture."

But Mr Shephard who said he now faces a legal bill of "a few hundred pounds" said he was "very disappointed" but had no regrets. Mr Shephard of Woodstock Drive, Bolton, said: "Without a doubt if this happened again tomorrow I would do it again.

Earlier in the two-day hearing the court heard description of the incident which led to the prosecution. Mr Des Murphy, prosecuting, claimed the huntsman first rode in front of the fox to turn it back towards the hounds, then rode among the hounds to pull them off the animal which was left lying injured on the grounds.

Mr Shephard said he saw Mr Sneddon smile after his horse had trampled the fox and said: "I believed he had broken the law."

The group of eight anti-hunt protesters carried the injured fox to a Rawtenstall vet but the animal died after an hour. A post mortem revealed the animal was already partly lame because of an old injury and could not run fast enough.

Miss Isobel Gray, defending, said the defence did not deny the fox was trampled but claimed it was an accident.

Mr Sneddon said he would normally have dismounted and finished off the fox with a humane killer which he had on his saddle but said the noise of the hunt saboteurs had excited his horse and he could not get off.

He told he court he would have lost his job as a huntsman if he had deliberately trampled on the fox.

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