Deer DNA used for first time in UK to prosecute poacher

DNA from a red deer has been used for the first time in the UK to help prosecute a poacher.James Kennedy, 70, illegally shot and killed and then removed a deer from the Glenfinnan Estate in Lochaber.

He claimed to having shot it lawfully at another location, but scientists matched a blood stain in his van to remains he had left on the estate.

Kennedy was fined £100 and ordered to pay compensation of £70 at Fort William Sheriff Court .He had earlier pled guilty to killing the deer, gralloching it - removing its internal organs, head and lower legs - and taking the carcass away. The incident happened near Glenfinnan on 2 February last year.Police, who had been alerted to a suspected poacher by members of West Lochaber Deer Management Group, stopped Kennedy's van and asked him about the deer carcass in the back of the vehicle.Because Kennedy said it had been shot at another location with the landowner's consent police had no reason to detain him.

But two days later the head of a red deer hind and other body parts were found at Druim na Brein-choille on Glenfinnan Estate.

BBC