A Highland gamekeeper who fired a shotgun at a “precious” sparrowhawk has been fined £1,575 for the “abhorrent” act.
Rory Parker was caught on camera as he fired two shots into the air before the protected bird of prey plummeted to the ground.
The wildlife charity RSPB Scotland video-recorded the incident as it unfolded at the Moy Estate on September 16 2021.
Parker, who was 22 years old at the time, then drove away from the crime scene on his quad bike, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
The 24-year-old was arrested and charged after the RSPB’s investigations team reported the alarming incident to the police.
Shotgun cartridges and feathers found at the scene
Fiscal Shamielah Ghafar said that officers later recovered two shotgun cartridges and sparrowhawk feathers from the scene at Tom Na Slaite, Ruthven.
Parker admitted the offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Defence agent Mark Moir KC told Sheriff Sara Matheson that his client had been in his job since he left school.
“He is deeply shameful of what he has done. He has brought the estate into disrepute and has now resigned,” he said.
“His firearms certificate is likely to be revoked as a result of this conviction. He should have been shooting pigeons and crows that day. Feral pigeons are a problem on the estate.
“However, the sparrowhawk flew over and there was a rush of blood. He says it was a stupid thing to do.”
Watch: RSPB video evidence of the crime
Parker, of Drumbain Cottage in Tomatin, has been given three months to pay the £1,575 fine.
Sheriff Matheson told him: “Scotland’s birds of prey are precious and deserve protection.”
Moy Estate has previously been accused of wildlife crimes against birds of prey on the estate.
A poisoned red kite was found on it in 2020 and Police Scotland provided other evidence “in relation to trapping offences”.
As a consequence, NatureScot last year restricted the estate’s general licence, which would have allowed landowners or land managers to carry out control of common species of wild birds – including crows and magpies – to protect crops or livestock.
The restriction was for a three-year period and the estate lost an appeal against the decision.
‘Abhorrent behaviour’
The RSPB said it believes that Parker lured the sparrowhawk using a plastic decoy owl.
Reacting to his conviction, Ian Thomson, head of investigations for the charity, said: “This conviction was the end result of exemplary partnership working between Police Scotland, RSPB Scotland, the Wildlife DNA Forensics team at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture and the Wildlife & Environmental Crime Unit of COPFS”.
He also warned that raptor persecution continues to occur “unabated”.
Dee Ward, vice chair (policy) at Scottish Land and Estates, said: “We condemn raptor persecution in the strongest possible terms and it is right and proper that anyone who commits such an act is prosecuted and convicted.
“In this case, the illegal persecution of a sparrowhawk near pheasant and partridge release pens is particularly disappointing given the progress made by the sector in driving down raptor crime in recent years and industry-wide condemnation of this unacceptable behaviour.
“We will continue to do all that we can to prevent, detect and condemn anyone who thinks this kind of abhorrent behaviour is acceptable.”
Rory Parker is the 56th gamekeeper to be convicted of raptor persecution offences in Scotland since 1990.
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