Kent Crown Prosecution Service demonstrated their confidence in the new Criminal Justice and Public Order Act earlier this week when they dropped charges of aggravated trespass against a hunt saboteur appearing at Maidstone magistrates court on Monday 9th January 1995.

Erica Wirrmann, a member of Ashford Hunt Saboteurs, was arrested with two other saboteurs at the Ashford Valley Foxhunt meet at Chainhurst, Kent, on 12th November 1994. She had been charged under s.69 of the new act, but when she appeared in court on Monday, pleading not guilty, Kent CPS offered to drop the criminal charge if she would agree to be bound over for 12 months in the sum of £100. As she is leaving the country next month and did not wish her departure to be delayed, she agreed to be bound over. A bindover is a civil remedy and means that Erica has not been found guilty of any criminal offence; as she will not be in the country, the bindover will make no difference to her whatsoever.