Cruelty trial defendant spent 'every penny' on defence (From Bucks Free Press)

Cruelty trial defendant spent 'every penny' on defence

6:40pm Wednesday 4th March 2009

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A HORSE trader accused of cruelty today said he “totally disagrees” with evidence animals on his farm were starved.

James Gray, who owns Spindles Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, asked why prosecutors at Bicester Magistrates Court had not produced pictures of allegedly emaciated animals taken on the day they were seized.

Mr Gray, 44, is charged with 12 counts under the Animal Welfare Act along with four other people, after more than 100 horses were seized from his farm last January.

He told the court he “would have noticed” if animals described by vets he called to his farm as emaciated were in that condition.

He also said many animals were sold at markets in similar condition to the ones seized from his farm “and nothing is ever said”.

In cross-examination prosecutor Robert Seabrook QC asked Mr Gray why he did not comment when interviewed by police on January 5 last year, after the RSPCA seized the animals from the farm.

Mr Gray said he was instructed to make no comment by his solicitor.

Mr Seabrook then asked: “Was it not in your own interest to tell police and the RSPCA officers what your reason was?

“If you were correct and you had been feeding these animals regularly why did you not give an explanation for all the dead carcases littered about your property?”

Mr Gray repeated he had been told not to make a comment.

He had earlier told the court: “I have spent a lot of money on this case, every penny I possess.

“I would not have done that if I thought I had done something wrong.”

Mr Seabrook told the court vet Katie Robinson, who had been called to the farm when the RSPCA arrived on January 5, had said she had “never seen anything like it before”.

Mr Gray asked why, if the situation was that bad, she had not reported it on any of the other times she had visited the farm.

Mr Gray, Julie Gray, 41, and Cordelia Gray, 20, all of Spindles Farm, Jodie Gray, 26, of Ashford, Middlesex, and a teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny the charges.

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