Hunt supporter smashes car windows as terrified group of saboteurs sit inside

A hunt supporter who was caught on camera smashing car windows of a group of terrified saboteurs has pleaded guilty to ABH and criminal damage.

Barry Watson leapt from his Land Rover and used a torch to smash the windows of a Mitsubishi Shogun carrying members of the anti-hunt group.

As the saboteurs drove off, he threw the torch after the car – but it flew through one of the windows and hit a man in the back.

Watson, 48, chased the men at high speed from the scene of the attack just a few miles from his home in Glatton, Cambs., to Peterborough Police Station, where he fled.

North Cambridgeshire Hunt Saboteurs Association has been monitoring the Fitzwilliam Hunt when they were set upon in a narrow country lane.

The footage shows the hunt saboteurs’ car surrounded by the high-powered vehicles, with one skidding in front of them to block them in.

Watson then approaches the saboteurs’ car and smashes in several of their windows.

A woman screams as the narrator yells: "OK they’ve just put our window through! Police! 999! Now!’

One of the anti-hunt demonstrators – filming as the drama unfolds – says: "We are being beckoned by this d***head to pull over but I’m not pulling over now. No.’

Watson appeared before Peterborough Magistrates on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to criminal damage and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The court heard Watson had caused more than £1,000 of damage to the car in the attack on February 10.

Stephen Welford, defending Watson told the court that Watson reacted ‘entirely out of character’ after one saboteur said to him ‘we know who you are, your time has come.’”

Mr Welford said: "Watson is a hunt supporter – he does not take part in it, but he goes and watches the hunt.

“On this day he had been out with the Oakley Hunt.

"He had spoken to the sabs earlier in the day. He was spoken to by one saboteur who said to him ‘we know who you are, your time has come.’”

Mr Welford said in the past Watson had received threatening phone calls to his home from hunt saboteurs.

"He had been threatened, abused and worn down," the lawyer said.

“He came across this Shogun, and foolishly took matters into his own hands.

“This was entirely out of character and is a matter he regrets."

Watson was ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.

Chair magistrate Hilary Shields did not order him to pay compensation however after hearing the saboteurs had managed to raise money to pay for the damage through a crowdfunding website.

Speaking outside court, a spokesman for the North Cambridgeshire Hunt Saboteurs Association, said: "When all the vehicles finally came to a stop, Mr Watson leapt out and violently attacked his victims’ vehicle with a blunt object, smashing three windows and injuring the occupants with brute force and broken glass from the shattered windows.

"After the shocking attack, the victims made their escape. However, he continued to chase them at high speed in his Land Rover, until the pursuit lead to Peterborough Police Station, when he fled the scene."

The spokesman added: "While we are disappointed with the leniency of the sentence, this reflects Mr Watson’s guilty plea and acceptance of the charges."

The Fitzwilliam Hunt takes place over 600 square miles of land in the area of Cambridgeshire between Stamford in the North to Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire.