Affiliations: North Wales Hunt Sabs
Location: Flintshire
These sabs just keep on coming, each as ridiculous as the last. Dafydd Hughes is a reprobate who dedicates his unemployment to self-righteous virtue-signalling, violence and intimidation, all in the name of sabbing.
Conviction for Assault
North Wales Live reported in January 2019 that Dafydd Hughes had been convicted for assault after appearing on trial together with fellow masked menace Connor Heffey.
The Welsh media outlet’s article was titled “Hunt saboteurs who ‘didn’t intend to cause harm’ go free”. The inverted commas are key: Hughes (40) claimed he ‘didn’t intend to cause harm’. So why did he assault Max Wenger (54), who had been trying to oversee the laying of a trail for legal drag hunting?
The two sabs reportedly trespassed onto private woodland clad in black tactical gear, sporting threatening balaclavas, and wielding bull whips. Heffey and Hughes cracked their whips and deployed electronic wailing devices with the goal of unsettling hounds belonging to the Flint and Denbigh hunt.
Heffey (26) was cleared of two assault charges but found guilty of trespassing and using an electronic gadget to emit hound screams “to disorient and agitate the pack with intent to obstruct or disrupt a lawful activity”. He was given an 18 months conditional discharge.
Meanwhile, Hughes was placed on conditional discharge for one year after being found guilty of assault by pushing Hunt Supporters Club member Max Wenger.
Getting off lightly, the pair were ordered to pay £395 in costs which were to be deducted from their benefits. It’s good to know that the tax-payer's money is being spent wisely in sponsoring criminal activities such as these.
Shockingly, Hughes is not short of friends. Among his supporters at Llandudno court were Alison Berenyi, who thought it wise to photograph the trial from inside the courtroom. The Countryside Alliance reported some six months later that Berenyi had been convicted for contempt of court when it was discovered that she had stupidly uploaded the image to her social media in a show of support for the criminal Hughes. The act quite clearly contravened Section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925, which states that it is “an offence to take pictures in court, and also to publish them.”
More Legal Trouble
Hughes has clashed with the law more than once. In August 2019, North Wales Live once again covered Hughes’ benefits-funded escapades in the name of ‘animal liberation’.
In December 2018, Hughes allegedly assaulted Trelawnyd and Gwaenysgor community councillor Ed Lloyd-Ellis during a local trail hunt. Cllr Lloyd-Ellis had approached Hughes to remind him that “he could not go down the road under the Countryside Rights of Way Act and Common Law because they were going to intimidate, disrupt or prevent a lawful activity.”
Typically, Hughes was masked up and ready to stir trouble. Hughes allegedly attacked Cllr Lloyd-Ellis, who claimed: “He grabbed me around the throat first and one of his colleagues tried to remove his arm. I was very disappointed the charge was dropped.”
Predictably, Hughes denied the charges and even claimed that Lloyd-Ellis attacked him. However, the Crown Prosecution Service clearly felt the assault on Cllr Lloyd-Ellis was more believable as it was Hughes who found himself in the dock in 2019.
However, the convicted criminal managed to avoid prosecution this time.
Hughes’ violent and aggressive tendencies show no signs of letting up. Recently, he was filmed squaring up to a huntsman from the Flint and Denbigh, verbally abusing him, and physically confronting him.
Destroying Small Businesses:
Dafydd Hughes’ tactics aren’t limited to intimidation and violence. Sadly, just like sabs Jenny MacRae and Cathy Scott, Hughes relishes the opportunity to destroy any business which shows a shred of support for local hunts - or even contravenes his extremist vegan ideologies in any form...
Vilifying innocent rural establishments, such as the Lindir Inn and Rhug Estate Farm Shop, Hughes wants the whole world to march to the beat of his drum and doesn't seem to care that other people might not share his extreme views.
"As if my food wasn't horrible enough, they a load of fox hunters turned up [sic] with their houbds [sic] crapping everywhere," Daffyd wrote (barely comprehensibly) of the Llindir Inn, a charming village pub near Denbigh that like many inns probably struggles to keep going in the current business climate.
These sabs like to operate as a pack online. Hughes was quick to jump on the sab bandwagon in the well known pile-on against the Jamaica Inn in Bodmin, Cornwall, peppering the historic pub with phoney reviews.
But most shockingly, Hughes even had the gall to attack a vet online, urging the public to boycott the Rhiafna Vet Centre in Denbighshire.
Hughes accuses veterinarian John Hickerton of supporting "illegal fox hunting" - an accusation that the Rhianfa Vet Centre is quick to correct. For a so-called animal lover, attacking those who nurse wounded creatures back to health seems a twisted kind of logic.
Extremist Ideologies:
Like many hardcore sabs, Hughes’ convictions are fuelled by a flaming cocktail of extremism. He holds a strong hatred for the police – a view shared by other sabs like Gemma Barnes or Neal Buckoke. Hughes' own Facebook profile trumpets his subscription to ACAB, a registered hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League which simply means “All Cops Are B*******”.
Meanwhile, local sources have attested to his workshy nature. Neighbours report that Hughes allegedly kept cashing in on his grandmother’s pension after her death by moving into her house illegally, sectioning himself, and claiming mental illness. But he still somehow has the capacity to constantly harass the Flint and Denbigh hunt with girlfriend Emma Jones.