Former amateur whipper-in pushed hunt monitor into ditch
A former amateur whipper-in faces a jail sentence after being found guilty of using his horse to push a League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) hunt monitor into a ditch three times.
Christopher Marles, 48, of Farringdon, near Exeter, appeared at Honiton Magistrates Court on Wednesday (11 February).
Marles, who was whipping-in for the East Devon hunt when the incident took place in March 2008, admitted common assault on Helen Weeks, 61, of West Coker.
But a hearing was held to deduce whether his actions were intentional and magistrate Elizabeth Hibbick decided they were.
The court was told that in October 2006 Marles received a nine month sentence, suspended for two years, for causing actual bodily harm to another hunt monitor, 58-year-old Kevin Hill.
Mr Hill was left with two black eyes and needed six stiches after being punched by Marles while filming the Devon and Somerset Staghounds.
East Devon joint-master Michael Moore said Marles was no longer whipping-in for the hunt.
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He will be sentenced next month.
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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.