Man denies dumping dead hares outside Broughton community shop in Hampshire
A father-of-three has denied dumping the bodies of 50 hares outside a village shop in what has been described as a “horror movie scene”.
James Kempster, 39, who lives at a caravan site in Totton, Southampton, is on trial at Southampton Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of possessing a dead bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and a charge of criminal damage to the shop front.
The court heard that the incident was caught on CCTV outside Broughton Community Shop in the early hours of March 15 2024.
Adam Cooper, prosecuting, has told the court that the footage shows three men arrive in a car with two men wearing balaclavas getting out and dumping the hares.
One of the men is then seen to “tear” the body of a hare and smear blood on the store front before stuffing a dead kestrel and a barn owl under the door handles.
The car was found burnt out in a country lane after the incident, the court has heard.
The prosecution claim that DNA from two people found on one of the dead birds was a billion times more likely to have come from Kempster and an unknown individual than from two individuals not related to the defendant.
Giving evidence, Kempster denied being the man shown on the CCTV putting the hares in front of the shop and the two birds under the door handles.
When asked what he was doing that night, the unemployed roofer said: “I can’t remember last week let alone two years ago.”
Mr Cooper asked the defendant how his DNA was found at the scene. Kempster replied: “The only way I can explain it is transferable DNA.”
The defendant also denied burning out the car used in the incident.
Kempster denies the charges and the trial continues.