Animal Welfare Charges Dropped Against Cheshire Abattoir Directors

Animal cruelty charges against the directors of a North West abattoir have been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due to insufficient evidence - just weeks after a separate investigation into alleged irregularities over horse passports at the same abattoir was also abandoned for the same reason.

Father and son Derek Lesley Turner, 80, and Derek William Turner, 41, each denied seven charges of ‘permitting horses to sustain avoidable excitement, pain or suffering’ at the Red Lion abattoir in Nantwich, Cheshire.

Notices formally discontinuing the cases were scheduled to go before Crewe (South Cheshire) Magistrates Court on Monday 27th October 2014.

The pair were charged as directors of High Peak Meats Export Ltd under the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter and Killing) Regulations 1995. Seven contraventions of Regulation 4(1)(b) are said to have occurred at the premises between October and December 2012.

Animal rights group members gained access to the abattoir to fit secret cameras in and around the slaughter area. Footage purported to show three Polish workers, who it is believed have now returned to Poland, stunning horses in the presence of other horses, which is not allowed, and hitting a horse with a knotted piece of rope to keep it under control prior to it being slaughtered for meat.

Leading agricultural lawyer David Kirwan of law firm Kirwans, who represented the Turners, said: “We were prepared to argue in court how this prosecution was sloppy and shambolic on several levels.

“The CPS was exclusively reliant on covert video footage obtained illegally by a non-regulatory body. There was no evidence that suggested that the Turners, who do not appear in any of the footage, knew what was happening let alone ‘permitted’ it as they were accused of.

“This matter dragged on well beyond the permitted six-month time frame for charges to be brought, again illustrating what a dysfunctional body the Food Standards Agency is. Allegations should have been dismissed long ago, not allowed to fudge and fester to our clients’ detriment for almost two years.

“The FSA did not progress the investigation sufficiently and when they finally passed their file over to the CPS the case was out of time. The publicly funded FSA is bungling its way through gung-ho prosecutions with little understanding and seemingly no regard for the British farming community.”

The CPS has notified Kirwans of its decision to discontinue all matters against the defendants, including the three workers featured in the video footage who were similarly charged with animal welfare breaches. The CPS said there was insufficient evidence against the Turners, while a prosecution against the Polish workers was not in the public interest.

In the earlier case alleging irregularities with horse passports, five people were due to stand trial relating to documents of six horses that were rejected for slaughter at the Red Lion abattoir in early 2013. The abattoir was licensed to sell horsemeat in Europe. This case was discontinued on 1st October 2014.