Mobile phone footage of a hunt master telling a woman protester ‘I’d quite like to s**g you’ and ‘can I take you to bed, please?’ has been shown in court.
Charles Carter, 34, was filmed telling the mother-of-four she was ‘very pretty’ before asking for her number.
The footage was shown at York Magistrates’ Court as Carter and whipper-in of the hunt Colin Milburn, 59, were cleared of hunting offences.
Linda Hoggard, who shot the footage, said she set off with anti-hunt spray and her camera because she was concerned about a pair of foxes she had seen in the area.
Carter (pictured) was a councillor for Saham Toney ward on Breckland Council in Norfolk at the time of the incident on January 23, but he resigned after the footage emerged
Charles Carter (pictured left, outside York Magistrates Court) was filmed telling Linda Hoggard (right) that she was ‘very pretty’ before asking for her number
Mrs Hoggard filmed the hunt in woodland at Squirrel Hall, near Duggleby, North Yorks, and then described an encounter with Carter she captured on her phone.
In the three-minute long footage, played to the district judge, Carter is dressed in full red hunting attire and is apparently filming the encounter himself on his phone.
Carter was a councillor for Saham Toney ward on Breckland Council in Norfolk at the time of the incident on January 23, but he resigned after the footage emerged.
Carter — who is Master of the Middleton Hunt — tells Mrs Hoggard: ‘I’d quite like to s**g you, actually.’
In the three-minute long footage, Carter is dressed in full red hunting attire
After she responds ‘I’ll tell my husband that then, shall I?’, Mr Carter adds ‘can I take you to bed, please?’, tells her she is ‘very pretty’ and asks for her phone number.
Cross-examining Mrs Hoggard, Stephen Welford, defending, described his client’s comments as ‘distasteful’.
Mr Welford asked her repeatedly how much money she had made from selling video footage to media outlets and she told the court she had earned nothing.
Asked why she was in the area at the time, Mrs Hoggard told the court: ‘I was trying to save a fox’s life.’
Asked by district judge Adrian Lower whether she went out that day to sabotage the hunt or to take pictures of wildlife, she said: ‘A bit of both.’
Opening the case for the prosecution, Christopher Rowe told the district judge how Carter told police he had been speaking with Mrs Hoggard and made the comments caught on camera ‘in order to make light of the situation’.
Mr Rowe said that Carter told officers a trail had been laid for the hounds and he was not aware of the fox.
Carter, of Birdsall, North Yorkshire, and Milburn, of West Knapton, North Yorkshire, denied hunting a wild mammal with dogs.
District Judge Lower later ruled there was no case to answer and dismissed all charges.
A charge against Carter of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment alarm or distress was discontinued at a hearing last month.
Linda Hoggard (left), who shot the footage, said she set off with anti-hunt spray and her camera because she was concerned about a pair of foxes she had seen in the area
