Pilot charged with killing hunt follower
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
COVENTRY–Heating technician, hunting opponent, and
gyrocopter pilot Bryan Griffiths, 54, of Bedworth, Warwickshire,
has been held by police since March 9, 2009 on a charge of murdering
hunt follower Trevor Morse, 48, of Alderminster, Warwickshire.
“Morse died of head injuries after he was struck by the
gyrocopter’s propeller at Long Marston airfield, near
Stratford-upon-Avon,” reported the London Times. “Magistrates in
Nuneaton, Warwickshire, were told that a witness videotaped the
incident, and the moments before it. The court was told that
Griffiths was a member of an anti-hunt animal rights campaign and
worked as a volunteer hunt monitor, liaising closely with police.
Warwickshire Police said that a second man arrested on suspicion of
murder was released on police bail pending further inquiries.”
“A gyrocopter had been following us for a couple of weeks and
we had made a formal complaint to the Civil Aviation Authority 10
days ago,” Warwickshire Hunt joint master Sam Butler told BBC News.
Summarized Lucy Bannerman and Valerie Elliott of the London
Times, “It is believed that Morse went with a friend to the airfield
to try to discover who piloted the gyrocopter. He and a woman were
believed to have approached the aircraft as it was refuelling.”