Dorset gamekeeper admits charges over dead buzzards

Police searched Mr Allen's property in 2021

A former gamekeeper on a country estate has admitted offences including possessing dead buzzards, unlicensed chemicals and an unlicensed shotgun.

Paul Allen, 54, of Brockington Down in east Dorset, pleaded guilty to seven charges at Weymouth Magistrates' Court.

An investigation began in 2020 when a dead rat was found apparently laced with a chemical that had killed a kite lying next to it, the court heard.

Allen was released on bail ahead of sentencing on 16 February.

Paul Allen pleaded guilty to seven offences at Weymouth Magistrates' Court

Police found six dead buzzards and the parts of three more buzzards on a fire at Allen's home in 2021, the court heard.

They also found chemicals including unlicensed strychnine, two containers of Cymag poison and an insecticide, as well as an unlicensed loaded shotgun.

Elizabeth Valera, prosecuting, told the court: "He was using these chemicals when he wasn't entitled to do so, and they were not under licence.

"It follows quite a pattern of how, the police say, Mr Allen was working at the time."

The former gamekeeper for a local estate admitted two charges of possessing dead birds, two of failing to comply with firearms rules and three offences relating to the chemicals.

Tim Ryan, defending, said Allen had recently been widowed and had two teenage children.

"There is a lot going on in Mr Allen's life and he has clearly made some mistakes and also had an awful lot to put up with," he added.

Speaking after the guilty plea, RSPB investigations officer Thomas Grose, said: "Finding so many illegally killed buzzards was truly shocking.

"This is yet another example of a gamekeeper being prosecuted in connection with raptor persecution offences on land managed for gamebird shooting."

The RSPB's recently published annual birdcrime report identified Dorset as having the second-highest number of confirmed bird of prey persecution incidents in the UK, behind Norfolk.