James Gray appeal date put back by seven days
The date when Buckinghamshire horse dealer James Gray and his family will appeal their convictions and sentences for horse cruelty has been changed to 11 January, to give the magistrates more time to prepare.
On 8 May, Bicester Magistrates Court convicted James Gray, 45, of Spindle Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, and a youth who cannot be named, of nine charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals and two charges of failing to protect animals from pain, injury, suffering and disease.
Gray was sentenced to six months imprisonment, ordered to pay £400,000 and banned from keeping horses for life. The youth was banned from keeping horses for 10 years.
Gray’s wife Julie and daughters Cordelia and Jodie were also banned from keeping equines for 10 years and given 150 hours community service each over 12 months.
They were found guilty of failing to protect the animals.
The appeal was due to be heard at Bicester Magistrates Court on 4 January but has been put back by one week.
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
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.