Norfolk 'Disgrace'
6 November 2007
The National Gamekeepers' Organisation today described as an 'absolute disgrace' the way in which the gamekeeping profession was recently vilified in connection with the alleged shooting of two hen harriers on a prominent Norfolk Estate.
Despite a major police search, the Crown Prosecution Service today confirmed that no hen harrier bodies, forensic or ballistic evidence had been found. A CPS Spokesman said, "The police investigation has been thorough and there are no other areas of investigation which can be pursued."
It has emerged that the original story, which led to front page headlines and TV and radio coverage throughout the UK and beyond over a period of several days, was based on nothing more than a misidentification by someone who thought he saw two hen harriers being shot in poor evening light.
The NGO said, "The person who thought he saw this happen was a Natural England employee. Somebody went straight to the press and the story then exploded from there."
The NGO is taking up at a high level within Natural England a report in the Daily Mail that an NE source later told a journalist, "It is a fair assumption that the shots were fired by a gamekeeper. I can't imagine why anyone else would do it."
Similar allegations against the gamekeeping profession were then made by other newspapers and media outlets.
The NGO spokesman said: "There have been cases in the past where conservation bodies, the police and the media have over-reacted to this sort of allegation in the face of little or no evidence but this Norfolk incident will surely become infamous as the worst example ever. The NGO is determined that never again will so much be made from so little. The whole thing has been an absolute disgrace."