An aristocrat has been fined £15k after cows at his country estate attacked dog walkers – leaving one with serious injuries and another fearing for his life.
Former High Sheriff of Wiltshire Sir Charles Hobhouse, 60, admitted two health and safety failings on his land in Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.
A court heard dog walkers were trampled by the same herd of 17 cattle and 18 calves on two separate occasions in 2021.
One incident – on 5 June of that year – left a woman with a fractured shoulder and suspected broken ribs, it was said.
Her husband – who said his military PTSD had been worsened by the incident – described a “frenzied and intense attack”.
And two months later the cattle cornered another dog walker who was left with snapped vertebrae and said he had genuine concerns he would be killed.
Hobhouse, a baronet and former High Sheriff who attended Eton, according to a LinkedIn page, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
And the defendant, of the Grade I Listed Manor House, Monkton Farleigh Estate, was yesterday (8 June) ordered to pay a £15,000 fine and £8,000 costs at Bristol crown court.
The hearing was told he took inadequate steps to prevent cattle from attacking members of the public who crossed his land on public footpaths.
The court heard Michael Booley, 57, Joanne Booley and Josian Gauld were walking three dogs through a field on the estate on a public path not fully bounded by electric fencing on 5 June 2021.
The herd then gave chase to the walkers – trampling Mrs Booley after throwing her into the air before being fought off with a rucksack by Mrs Gauld.
In a statement, Mr Booley said the “frenzied and intense attack” had exacerbated his post-traumatic stress disorder from service as a British Army officer.
Mrs Booley, his wife, suffered a fractured right shoulder, suspected broken ribs, severe bruising and injuries to her right hand and wrist.
Prosecutor Alistair Haggerty told the court the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Hobhouse’s estate in the aftermath and advised him to keep the herd in fields with fully fenced footpaths or no footpaths at all.
He was told: “You need to treat the herd involved in the incident as aggressive and must take all reasonable precautions.”
Yet on 19 August 2021, another dog walker was severely injured by the same herd while walking along an unfenced public footpath in a different field.
The court heard James Johnson, a 42-year-old builder, was walking with his dog at 6am along a path when he was chased by the herd, knocked down and trampled.
Surrounded by cattle, Mr Johnson managed to crawl to a tree and climb its lowest branch only to fall to the ground and be trampled again by a herd which had by then completely encircled him.
In a statement quoted in court, he said: “I genuinely felt like I was going to be killed at this point”.
But Mr Johnson managed to get to his feet, strike a cow and escape through a gap in the herd, climbing out of the field over a stile and falling to the ground on a road, where a passing member of the public called an ambulance.
Mr Haggerty said he sustained concussion, a cut to his head, two dislocated shoulders, three broken ribs and three snapped vertebrae in the incident and nightmares and memory loss in the aftermath.
The prosecution added that Hobhouse “was clearly aware of the risks” of that herd being in a field with unfenced paths.
Malcolm Galloway, defending, told the court his client “takes responsibility for what happens in the estate” but had not himself decided to move them into the field where the second incident occurred.
He said: “Plainly he has shown remorse. He has taken personally what has happened. That is why I start with a genuine apology to those people who did nothing wrong but walk in the countryside.”
Mr Galloway said the herd had been inspected daily between the first and second incidents by the farm’s foreman, Andrew Tucker.
Mr Tucker observed “no indication of any aggressiveness in the herd whatsoever” and he alone then took the decision to move them into the field where the second incident took place, the court heard.
“The court must look at the actions and knowledge of Sir Charles and not the partnership and its employees as a whole,” Mr Galloway said.
“He would have not done so had he been aware of it.”
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Saini accepted Hobhouse had not been aware the herd had been moved to the field where the second incident occurred.
But he ruled the defendant had not heeded the law in both incidents and in the second had not followed advice given to him by the HSE not to allow the herd to be in a field with unfenced public footpaths in any circumstance.
The judge said: “As a person with overall responsibility, the law requires you to properly assess the risk posed by the cattle and calves at foot near public footpaths.
“You accept by your admissions that you failed to put in protective and preventative measures to mitigate the risk.”
HSE inspector Leo Diez said after the sentencing: “Large animals can be a risk to people. Even a gentle knock from a cow can result in injury.
“Seemingly docile cattle can pose a risk to walkers when they are under stress or feel threatened and can exhibit instinctive maternal or aggressive behaviour.
“Where possible cows with calves should not be grazed in fields where there is a public right of way.
“Where this is not possible they should be segregated from the footpath by appropriate fencing where it is reasonable to do so.”
