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A father and son who attacked two members of an animal welfare charity filming a Leicestershire fox hunt – breaking one man’s neck – have been sentenced for their crimes today.

George Grant (57) and 25-year-old Thomas Grant, both associated with the Belvoir Hunt, attacked the two monitors in March 2016.

Darryl Cunnington, a monitoring investigator with the League Against Cruel Sports, suffered a broken neck.

His colleague, Roger Swain, was also injured and had his video recorder stolen.

The Grants, who live in Belvoir, where the hunt is based, had pleaded guilty to charges of causing grievous bodily harm, theft, criminal damage to property and assault causing actual bodily harm during an earlier trial.

(Image: Chris Gordon)

Grant senior, the Belvoir Hunt's terrier man, and his son appeared at Leicester Crown Court today to be sentenced.

They were each given 13 month jail sentences, suspended for two years.

They were also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay each pay £500 compensation to their victim.

The incident happened off Tofts Lane, Stathern, near Melton, as the victims were surveying the hunt’s activities – although there was no report that the hunt was acting unlawfully on that day.

When the Leicester Mercury reported the incident in 2016, Mr Cunnington said: “We’d set up in woods next to the Jubilee Way path, near Stathern, about half or three-quarters of a mile from where the hunt was.

“It’s a good vantage point and you can see for about 15 miles, and the cameras we have can film from up to a mile away.

“We operate covertly. The hunts often don’t know we’re there.

“We see what they’re up to, whether they’re hunting illegally and, if they are, gather video evidence and write statements to pass on to the police.”

The attack happened at about 2.30pm. However, although the emergency services attended promptly, the challenging terrain meant it took more than three hours to get Mr Cunnington on to a spinal board in a specialist vehicle.

He had sustained a broken vertebrae in his neck and had to wear a neck collar for about seven weeks.

Mr Cunnington told the Mercury at the time: “We travel all over the country monitoring the activities of hunts, on about 150 occasions, and I’ve never been attacked before.

“We sometimes get a bit of verbal grief, but the hunts generally treat us differently to the hunt saboteurs because we’re professionals doing a job.”

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