Since the 2004 hunting act came into force in early 2005 the Flint and Denbigh hunt have never been charged under the act…. But why? Well it’s not because of lack of evidence, this hunt are filmed week in week out blatantly hunting foxes illegally. Statements and video evidence are given to North Wales Police on a regular basis. The short answer to why NWP have never charged the Flint and Denbigh hunt is CORRUPTION!
We recently came across a short voicemail left on one of our phones, saying “an update on the case, No Further Action will be taken due to insufficient evidence”. We’ve tried to chase the police up for further details but as of yet we’ve had no response. The case was the Flint and Denbigh hunt killing a fox in Trefnant on November 20th 2021. All the evidence was there, videos and statements were given to the Rural Crime Team, yet they waited until the day the 6 months time limit to prosecute was up to tell us they’d be taking No Further Action, despite stringing us along for 6 months by suggesting this case would be going somewhere.
Full story here https://network23.org/northwaleshuntsabs/2022/06/03/police-drop-another-case-against-the-flint-and-denbigh-hunt/
It’s pretty bloody obvious to us who is pulling the strings at North Wales Police….. it’s the funny handshake gang and in particular Henry/Harry Fetherstonhaugh the Lord Lieutenant of Clwyd and husband of Davina the head of the Flint and Denbigh hunt. Coincidentally the deputy Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff of Clwyd are also members of the Flint and Denbigh hunt.
Although we have years and years of experience of North Wales Police bias, this latest case is a bit shocking considering the upcoming review into how NWP handle hunting cases. Last year we were in a similar situation after the then head of the rural crime team Rob Taylor sabotaging a hunting case against the Flint and Denbigh hunt. Officers involved in that case let their feelings known to us, telling us that all hunting cases were to be passed to the CPS to make the decision. Which had happened with this incident, but hadn’t happened with the latest case. What Rob Taylor had done was to discontinue the case against the Flint and Denbigh hunt after it had been already submitted to the CPS to make the decision, yet NWP tell us officers are not to discontinue cases once they are already with the CPS…… We’ve still had no answer on this some 16months later. We reported it to Police Professional Standards who claim to have investigated but never answered our questions. We then appealed via the IOPC who agreed that the response from Police Professional Standards wasn’t complete. We spoke again with Police Professional Standards on January 10th 2022 and still we’ve heard nothing back, and now they’re not even replying to our emails.
full story on Taylor here https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/fox-hunt-saboteurs-outraged-after-20307706
Rob Taylor has a history on covering up for the hunt, one time he even denied the existence of Operation Yarder, a police operation where NWP colluded with the Flint and Denbigh hunt to target and stitch up hunt sabs. Articles below.
Taylor isn’t the only bad apple in North Wales Police, we’ve had numerous run-ins with many a corrupt Sergeant. One infamous case was when PS Neil Stringfellow (now conveniently retired) colluded with Flint and Denbigh hunt supporter and local councillor Ed Lloyd-Ellis to stitch up sabs. Stringy as we like to call him issued a Dispersal Order on sabs in Trefnant at a meet of the Flint and Denbigh hunt. Police Officers then blocked in our vehicles making it impossible to leave even if we had wanted to. This resulted in 2 sabs getting arrested and charged with failing to leave under a Dispersal Order. No action was taken against Ed Lloyd-Ellis of course who had assaulted sabs. In court it did “all come out in the wash” (one of Stringfellows sayings). The Dispersal Order had infact been been altered, the dates had been altered and maps added at a later date by Stringfellow. The Magistrates tore into Stringy, questioning his relationship with Ed Lloyd-Ellis. When asked a question PS Neil Stringfellow started to respond “Well in my opinion……..” before he has stopped by the judge and was reminded that he was in a court of law and we deal in facts not opinions. Half way through the day to CPS conceded the case, and North Wales Police were sued.
Full story here: https://www.thecanary.co/discovery/analysis-discovery/2019/03/12/police-paid-an-anti-hunting-activist-thousands-after-she-was-wrongfully-arrested/
Another wrong’un is PS Kris Hunt who again colluded with the hunt and Councillor Ed Lloyd-Ellis. The ironically named PS Hunt was then based in Denbigh police station and was overseeing hunt related cases. But what Kris Hunt did was twist cases of assaults on sabs and actually charged the sabs. One case in Llaneliden a sab was assaulted by Ed Lloyd-Ellis as he attempted to walk up a public footpath, it was all on video with numerous witnesses, absolutely no way Lloyd-Ellis could not be charged with assault….. but yet kris Hunt totally ignored the assault by Ed Lloyd-Ellis and instead charged the sab with assault. It was absolutely unbelievable, but just before the case was due in court the CPS threw it out. The collusion between the police and the hunt was all there to be seen in Lloyd-Ellis’ statement, where he tells about how the police drone operators had phoned him to tell him sabs had arrived in the area, which resulted in Lloyd-Ellis finding the sabs and assaulting one. Once again Police Professional Standards helped to cover this up, stating the police had no record of the drone operators in the area on that day. This was then proven to be a lie thanks to a FOI request.
And lying to professional standards: https://www.voice.wales/north-wales-police-withheld-key-information-about-assault-on-hunt-saboteur/
That wasn’t Sergeant Kris Hunts only misdemeanour as on another case whilst still under investigation for the things above he once again ignored an assault on the same sab and instead attempted to charge the sab with aggravated trespass. Claiming the sab was playing a gizmo at the time, despite the fact he wasn’t. That case never went anywhere after the sab refused a voluntary interview the case was dropped. But once again police professional standards sided with Sergeant Hunt.
We’ve got to say as far as the police campaign against us goes, it has improved a lot recently. Not a single one of us were interviewed under caution by the police last season. The police have even admitted to us (off the record) they’ve made mistakes in the past. But unfortunately the enforcement of the hunting act is still nonexistent. There is a lot of talk from the police and a lot of virtual signaling, they take statements and interview the hunt. But they’ll never charge the hunt due to the influence of the Fetherstonhaughs.
Witnesses have come forward with their experiences of an unhealthy relationship between the Flint and Denbigh hunt, the Fetherstonhaughs and North Wales Police. One witness told us that she’d witnessed illegal hunting at Coed Coch Estate (owned by Fetherstonhaugh). The hounds were in cry and riders were stood on-point, she went to find police who were parked up at the estate house. She told the office she wanted to report illegal hunting and the officer just laughed “Oh I don’t know about that…. I’ll get the rural crime team to contact you” which of course never happened. A former employee of Coed Coch Estate also told us they knew when the hunt would be at the estate as the police would turn up early and enjoy refreshments with the Lord Lieutenant. The estates former gamekeeper Andrew Collins also snitched on hunt after his employers the Fetherstonhaughs failed to help him out when he got himself a caution for assaulting a sab, the disgruntled gamekeeper said in court whilst describing the assault “yes I saw the fox running from the hounds”.
Let’s just hope the researchers at Glyndwr University finally shed a light on the failings and corruption of North Wales Police when it comes to dealing with the Flint and Denbigh hunt.
We look forward to speaking with them and have plenty of other corrupt coppers to add to the list including PS Nathan Jones and the former Police Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones.
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