Location
Disrupts hunts across East Anglia
Affiliations
North Cambs Sabs
Gareth Cheeseman, sab and unreliable witness, has been known to bother hunts across East Anglia.
Behind The Masks recently broke the news of Cheeseman’s discredited involvement in a case against a hunt master.
On 30 August former joint hunt master of the Pytchley with Woodland Hunt Mark Ferguson successfully appealed his 2022 conviction for assault, with the judge concluding that a hunt saboteur was the real aggressor. Cheeseman gave evidence at the original trial, which was discounted as inaccurate by the judge at the appeal as he was accused of “gilding the lily”.
Ferguson’s initial conviction of Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) and Criminal Damage against Cheeseman’s associate Tina Holroyd were successfully overturned. The judge found that Holroyd had her path blocked whilst disrupting a hunt and began acting in a highly dangerous way, attempting to pull Ferguson down from his horse.
The judge concluded that Ferguson responded in a reasonable and necessary manner, acting instinctively to defend himself, as well as prevent the sabs from trespassing further.
This isn’t the first time sabs have coopted the British justice system to their own ends. In 2018, West Midlands Hunt sab David Graham was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and handed a 12-month suspended sentence after giving police tampered video footage.
Nor is it the first time Cheeseman has tangled with the British justice system. In 2018, the High Court in London served Cheeseman and eight other defendants, including Emily Hepburn and Paula Lamont, with an injunction preventing trespass on approximately 16,000 acres of land belonging to the Cambridgeshire-based claimants who host the Fitzwilliam Hunt’s trail hunt.
Cheeseman forms half of a sab duo with his wife, fellow hunt-disrupter Lisa who was also named in the 2018 Fitzwilliam injunction.