Man who poisoned birds of prey escapes jail

A MAN responsible for one of Britain’s worst wildlife crimes yesterday escaped a jail term.

Stephen Muir pleaded guilty to deliberately poisoning 17 birds of prey by placing poison pellets in the countryside on the Barns Estate at Kirkton Manor in the Scottish Borders.

The 38-year-old gamekeeper, who could have been handed a custodial sentence for the death of the 16 buzzards and one goshawk, was fined €8,000.

At Peebles Sheriff Court, sitting in Selkirk, his solicitor, Mark Harrower, said Muir expressed “very deep regret” for his actions.

“He has brought shame on himself and put his employers in a difficult position and very much regrets it,” he said.

However, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) had hoped that the case would see the first jail term in Scotland for crimes against wildlife.

Dave Dick, investigations officer at the RSPB Scotland, welcomed the fine imposed.

“By any standards, that is a high fine, so you can’t say the sheriff hasn’t taken it very seriously indeed.”

But he criticised Sheriff James Farrell’s decision to admonish the Peeblesshire man on a further charge of being in possession of the poisonous substance carbofuran.

“The substance we’re talking about and the amount that man had could have killed several hundred people.

“Anyone living or working on the estate would have access to it. And if a child came along and found a dead bird and picked it up and merely touched those granules their life would be at risk.”

Muir was initially charged in connection with the death of 25 wild birds found during a police raid in March - including a tawny owl and a heron - but some of the bird carcasses were too badly decomposed for the cause of their death to be ascertained.

The court heard police discovered the poisoned birds of prey, two jars containing the poison and a number of pheasant and rabbit carcasses slit open and laced with the blue pellets.

Muir claimed he had laced the animals with the poison as bait to attract buzzards, which he said were attacking pheasants and partridges on the estate.

His solicitor said his client had not been aware he could apply for a licence to deal with the problem and had also been feeling “a little low” since the breakdown of his marriage.

“This man felt loyalty to his job, which he has been in for 17 years. He felt he was doing his job, but in no way was he asked by the estate to do this.

“This is a man who had come to the view there was no other way of dealing with these birds.”