Horse & Hound's Spindles Farm investigation diary

Thursday 13 May

James Gray skipped court yesterday, and in our subsequent news meeting, we decide it’s about time we try to find out what he was actually doing at Spindles Farm — an oft-asked question over the past two and a half years.

I also write up a conversation I had with a renowned horse dealer the previous week. I’d seen this chap (who, like most in this blog, will remain nameless) at a horse sale about four years ago and was quite nervous about talking to him — he “ran the show”, has a lot of clout and is quite an intimidating individual. I obtained his number via a good contact, dialled and, amazingly, got straight through to him.

I spent this morning talking to Peter Green, an expert witness in the case, vet and RSPCA consultant. He tells me some horror stories — like the horse, referred to in the case just as ‘C20’, who was dragged by its tail and head into a trailer by Jamie Gray and his son, driven home to Spindles Farm and left to die. It makes me feel quite sick. Peter tells me that he is very relieved the case is over — everyone is.

I question Peter about the various rumours that have been circulating — drug smuggling, money laundering, using the horses as donors for blood. He said a lot didn’t stack up — Jamie was importing a number of horses, which was unusual for a man who had a number of essentially meat animals — and the fact that he let them starve wasn’t business sense. But he, like everyone I questioned, told me no evidence was ever found that James Gray was doing anything other than horse dealing.

I’ve got a “secret” meeting in Amersham today with some people who give me a lot of background on James Gray and horse dealers like him. I realise how little I know about this “underworld” of our society. There are hundreds and hundreds of dealers like James Gray who make money on horses however they can — cash deals at markets and fairs up and down the country. Horses are a commodity to them like a sack of potatoes or a caravan — passports can be forged and money is made wherever, however.

I then head on to Aylesbury to speak to Trading Standards — to ask them why they didn’t prosecute James Gray for passports infringements. He had 51 passports for 140 horses. I’m told it was a decision was taken with the RSPCA to prosecute on welfare grounds and that cases can be thrown out if the authorities were seen to be “over zealous”. And anyway, if he had been sentenced for passport offences it would have run concurrently, not on top.

There are a lot of colts here — they’re worthless as the owners can’t afford to castrate them. There are two donkeys, one of which looks quite elderly, and one horse looking very stressed and uncomfortable and Trading Standards ask to see its passport. It turns out not to be the correct passport for horse, so the owner agrees to withdraw the horse from the sale and the passport is confiscated.

Kirsty tells me she’s at the market (in uniform) on her day off because she feels it’s so important the RSPCA have a presence there. Though there are no real welfare concerns that we can see, I feel very reassured by this. I talk through more of the case with her — she, too, is baffled by what Gray was really doing. It’s good to have met these RSPCA inspectors — the RSPCA gets a lot of stick but I have an enormous amount of respect for the inspectors out there on the streets. It’s been an education.

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