The RSPB reports 921 confirmed attacks on rare birds of prey between 2015-2024, with many linked to game shooting. They call for licensing of gamebird shooting in England and Wales to deter illegal killings.
James Kempster, a 39-year-old roofer from Totton, has been found guilty of two counts of possessing a wild bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 after DNA matching his was found on barn owl and kestrel carcasses dumped outside a village shop in Broughton, Hampshire. The incident in March 2024 also involved 50 dead hares left at the shop, creating what prosecutors described as a "horror movie scene". Kempster was cleared of criminal damage as magistrates said evidence did not prove he was the person who threw the hares. He will be sentenced in June.
