BY NIGEL BEAN & PAUL READ

In April of this year we wrote an article stating that Scotland’s CPS – the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) – had cottoned on to the antics of Terry Hill, the League Against Cruel Sports’ hunt monitor. We made the following public comment:

It turns out that we were very much mistaken. Not about the crook, Hill. But about COPFS.

If you have been reading our Saturday column over the last few weeks, you will know all about Huntsman Lee Peters. If not, you can catch up here and here. Lee has been a target for vexatious allegations by extremists over many years – even getting set up by a primed Somalian anti, after sabs went to great lengths to get Lee entrapped. The police in Scotland have had a good go at Lee too, but on each occasion they have tried he has walked away with an unblemished record. 

Lee left Scotland recently because of the constant harassment he was receiving up there. This included spying from bogus charity investigators, who were supported by a highly partisan rural police force local to where Lee lived and worked.

Up in Scotland Lee was terrorised by antis – as he had been south of the border. The day before a hunt took place Lee would anxiously send back photos of parked cars he didn’t recognise in the hope we might recognise them from a database. He was genuinely worried for his safety and those on the hunt as well as for the security of his family.

You can’t live your life like that – a miserable way to lead your working and personal life in a supposedly free country. Pestered by antis and harassed by a police team which was supposed to be impartial. Lee was not breaking the law in any way. Lee was simply trying to go about his work in peace.

After arriving in his new home relatively recently – far away from the Scottish mess – Lee had to deal with yet another prosecution attempt by the Scots. Only last month badgering Scottish police pursued a suspected fraudulent fire arms request against Lee only for it to be summarily dropped as yet another no case to answer. These endless attempts to prosecute Lee put unimaginable strain and stress on both him and his family. Without a doubt they have suffered far more than most in Lee’s position. The authorities seem hellbent in turning Lee into a true martyr for hunting.

So, you would think that being out of Scotland now Lee would be free at last to live a normal life and at least be able to work in peace?

Wrong.

COPFS have decided to pursue a case against Lee AGAIN related to alleged illegal hunting from December last year. Apparently the data that they are using to attempt to convict Lee expired after six months, so they craftily used a special COVID extension and served papers on him after the normal cut off period. This – notably – after they failed to nab Lee with the bogus fraudulent shotgun claim!

It’s as if the authorities in Scotland are trying to nail Lee for everything and anything – broken taillight style.

So what happens next?

What is of grave concern is we know the data the COPFS wish to prove to be evidence in the illegal hunting case is coming from none other than Terry Hill. We were informed about his movements over that period. In Oct 2018 we contacted the COPFS about Terry and his exceptionally dodgy dealings with the circuses in the nineties – his history of faking material to pervert the course of justice – and provided them with this key link.

So make no mistake COPFS know all about Hill’s previous activities at the circus and so do the local police for that matter. They were informed about Terry’s antics in October 2019 and it was then that they politely asked to stop accompanying him on his hunt monitoring. They, along with the COPFS, were then provided with up to date information showing Terry acting in a highly suspicious manner, accusing a hunt official of having no guns present when in fact there were three.

Just after that the 2nd gun was filmed Terry was filmed passing a third gunman:

So what are the Scottish police and prosecutors playing at? Are they being politically driven perhaps? Certainly there are doubts over the impartiality of some of the professionals involved – we have seen some very interesting emails. How can the COPFS possibly rely on the information supplied by a fake video merchant to attempt to convict Lee Peters? The mind boggles.

An investigation into the rural team’s conduct is necessary to restore trust in the Scottish police. As for the COPFS, there are so many questions for them to answer that in some ways it would be a blessing for a trial to proceed.

*To clarify, we asked Lee Peters for comment on this article but he refused. Lee thus is in no way responsible for any of the content of this article.