A GAMEKEEPER has avoided jail after admitting using an illegal trap and allowing another keeper to illegally catch birds of prey.

Roger Venton, 34, of Wheldrake Lane, Elvington, near York, was handed a sentence of three months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, at Telford Magistrates Court.

Venton, who was the former head gamekeeper on the Kempton Estate in Shropshire, pleaded guilty to using a spring trap and permitting assistant keeper Kyle Burden to use a cage trap to illegally catch birds of prey. The charges, contrary to the Wildlife & Countryside Act, included allowing Burden to use a caged trap baited with a raven.

The court heard Venton was employed as head gamekeeper at the estate in March last year, where Burden, 19, of Kempton, already worked.

Geoffrey Dann, prosecuting, said the 6,000-acre estate was home to a pheasant and partridge shoot, with about 40,000 pheasants and 20,000 partridges.

He told the court the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) was contacted by two separate seasonal gamekeepers employed at Kempton who reported the illegal killing of protected wildlife, including buzzards and badgers.

Investigators went to the estate on July 16 last year where they found a cage trap.

Cage traps are allowed in some circumstances, providing the bait is well looked after, and should not be used where they could trap birds of prey.

Further RSPB investigations found a pole trap – a spring trap placed on top of a tall pole.

The court heard these were made illegal in 1904 as they can attract birds of prey.

Huw Williams, for Venton, told the court the 34-year-old was “petrified” and knew he was unlikely to ever work as a gamekeeper again. Having moved to Elvington, he now planned to be an HGV driver.

Mr Williams said: “A clear distinction can be drawn as to culpability and harm between Kyle Burden and Roger Venton.

“It’s clear that Kyle Burden wanted to hurt and kill these animals. Mr Venton did not physically set any traps to kill any wild animals.

“Mr Burden clubbed to death a number of badgers, this was all happening on a 6,000-acre estate without Mr Venton realising what his rogue gamekeeper was doing and, at the end of the day, while he accepts responsibility for the supervisory aspect, Mr Burden effectively was a rogue keeper.”

Speaking after the sentencing, RSPB investigations officer Guy Shorrock said the charity was very pleased with the result.