A hunt saboteur has been cleared of an earlier conviction of Aggravated Trespass 2 years and 3 months after the alleged incident took place. In one of the longest running cases of its kind, the defendant's earlier conditional discharge, which had been served without any breaches, was quashed at Winchester Crown Court. The charge followed a day of protests against the John Lewis Partnership's pheasant shoot at Leckford Abbas, Hampshire. Following legal arguments that the CPS had not disclosed evidence that was vital to the defence, the court declared that the defendant was unable to receive a fair trial.

The court heard from the CPS that there had been difficulty in locating video footage of the day, which was subsequently supplied without sound, as the information had been gathered by the police for Special Branch rather than for evidential use in court proceedings. A statement by the officer who had been in charge on the day was not written until almost a year later, without the benefit of any memory refreshing tools such as a notebook. This statement came to light 4 months after the original conviction. An incident log of the days proceedings was also left undisclosed until the day of the trial.

The case has been dogged by procedural problems, including a previous hearing in August 1999 when Judge Patrick Hootton had declared an interest and disqualified himself from hearing the case. A spokesman for the Southern Anti Bloodsports Society said, "This activist took the case to appeal as he had been wrongfully convicted. Despite the fact that the earlier conviction was spent, he felt that he needed to take a stand against an injustice. We are happy that justice has been served, but concerned that this case has revealed that peaceful protestors are being monitored by Special Branch."