Judge clears Otis Ferry of ‘witness nobbling’
A judge has officially cleared Otis Ferry of charges of perverting the course of justice, but the 26-year-old master and huntsman of the South Shropshire still faces trial for robbery and assault.
H&H reported last month that the two “witness nobbling” charges, which put Mr Ferry behind bars for four months, were to be discontinued (news, 12 March).
And on 1 May Judge Martin Picton found Mr Ferry not guilty of both charges.
Mr Ferry told H&H: “The prosecution has spent close to £1million on this case so far, including putting me in jail, so the judge has told them to think very carefully about the charges I am still facing.”
Mr Ferry’s barrister Geoffrey Cox QC has asked for a day of legal argument to take place before the judge. That is scheduled for 22 May.
Mr Ferry, of Eaton Mascott, Shropshire, and his co-accused John Deutsch, 55, of Chipping Campden, are due to be tried on 28 September at Gloucester.
They both deny robbing hunt monitor Helen Ghalmi of a camera and assaulting her during a day’s hunting with the Heythrop in November 2007.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.