Five-year horse ban for former Stanley trainer

Nov 14 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

A FORMER racehorse trainer and dentist was banned from keeping horses for five years yesterday after admitting causing unnecessary suffering to a thoroughbred stallion.

Paul Johnson also faces legal fees of tens of thousands of pounds.

The seven-year-old horse, Hans Christian, had to be destroyed after RSPCA inspectors found it in a stable with an untreated wound which was infested by maggots.

Johnson, 50, formerly of Low Wyndways Farm, Tantobie, Stanley, County Durham, was responsible for the horse, magistrates in Peterlee were told yesterday.

Denise Jackman, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said an inspector noticed the horse was limping on a visit to the farm in June 2007.

Inquiries failed to establish who the owner was, and when the inspector returned he found the horse in the barn with an untreated wound to the left foreleg. The horse looked listless, added Mrs Jackman, who said a vet was called and had the animal "euthanased".

Tim Ryan, representing father-of-four Johnson, now of Sunny Terrace, Stanley, said his client had combined looking after 29 horses and sundry other animals on the 68-acre farm with running a busy dental practice with two surgeries on Tyneside.

He and his wife separated four years ago, and he has subsequently sold the farm and the dental practice.

He is currently living on the proceeds of the sale, and hoped to receive an NHS dental pension on his next birthday, added Mr Ryan.

Magistrates also ordered Johnson to carry out 60 hours’ unpaid work, and ordered him to pay costs and veterinary fees of £4,650.

The court was told Johnson owes legal fees of a further £24,000 after he unsuccessfully challenged the RSPCA over the prosecution in the High Court.

Lawyers for Johnson had the case thrown out at Consett Magistrates Court in October last year after a judge ruled the RSPCA took too long to bring it.

But the RSPCA successfully challenged that decision at London’s High Court last month with Lord Justice Pill, sitting with Mrs Justice Rafferty, deciding that delays in the case were not an "abuse of process".

Lord Justice Pill said that the trainer had made "concerted efforts" to "avoid and hide from" an RSPCA inspector, who made repeated attempts in June, July, August, October and November 2007 to speak to him face to face.

The judge added that when the inspector, who had even called at a dental surgery believed to be owned by Mr Johnson, eventually caught up with him in May 2008 he said: "I am not interested in talking to you".

Johnson was granted his racehorse trainer’s licence seven years ago, and enjoyed a successful start with six winners in his first two months. But the British Horseracing Authority withdrew his licence in 2007 because of the RSPCA prosecution.