A man dubbed "the cruelest farmer in Britain" by the UK’s leading animal charity was jailed for two years Monday for pushing a woman vet’s face into a mire of manure and cow urine.
Roger Baker, who also dragged a male animal health inspector into the slurry during the attack, was found guilty of affray at Taunton Crown Court in western England in January. Sentencing the 61-year-old, who has convictions for animal cruelty spanning 30 years, Judge Stephen O’Malley said the incident was a "deliberate and violent attack" from a man who had a history of violent behavior and had shown no remorse. You and others have to be shown that the court will protect public officials who are exposed to violence in the course of their normal duties," the judge said. Veterinary surgeon Susan Potter and animal health inspector Jonathan McCulloch were filming a dead lamb and emaciated cattle on Baker’s land near Truro in Cornwall when the attack took place in February 2003.
that a lie! they are still living on the farm so how are they emaciated! that dont sound like a freedom to me!
Baker first dragged McCulloch, 27, into the knee-deep liquid manure. When Potter went to her colleague’s aid, the farmer pushed her in the mire and held her face down, the court was told. Potter, 47, "fought like a wildcat" as Baker pushed her into the slurry, she told the court during the trial. "I went completely underneath the liquid," she said. "I thought he was trying to drown me."
| Sounds a lot like he was... |
The jury at the trial failed to reach a majority verdict on a second charge against Baker of making a threat to kill and the case was left to lie on the file by the prosecution. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said Baker had been banned for life from keeping sheep and had been jailed twice in the past six years for neglecting animals and failing to bury carcasses. An RSCPA spokesman described him as "the most consistently cruel person" they had dealt with when Baker was jailed for 165 days in 1999.
he probly chainey buddy! time to break out the checkbook again. |