04 Feb 2015 - 'Legendary' poacher caught for first time in 27 years after police call in forensic scientists to examine remains of hind
By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent
A poacher whose home in the Highlands is known locally as “venison villa” has become the first person in the UK to be prosecuted using DNA from a red deer.
James Kennedy, 70, who drives a car with the number plate “5TAG”, was fined at Fort William Sheriff Court after earlier admitting poaching a hind on the 9,000-acre Glenfinnan Estate last year.
He was convicted for the sixth time after the deer’s DNA matched blood stains found in the back of his van.
Kennedy was stopped by police on February 2, 2014, when the carcass of a deer was found in the vehicle. He had “gralloched” the animal (removed its internal organs) and also cut off its head and lower legs on the hill.
He told officers he shot the animal at another location, where he was allowed to shoot, and escaped arrest at the time.
But two days later, the head and other remains of the deer were found on the estate and samples were sent for analysis to the Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) laboratory in Edinburgh.
A search warrant was later obtained to search Kennedy’s vehicle and scientists established there was a DNA profile match between the red deer remains and the bloodstain.
Mr Kennedy, whose bungalow is named Tigh na Feidh, Gaelic for House of Deer, told officer’s he shot the mammal on “Black Donald’s” land, where he was allowed to stalk.
The court also heard that local estate factors and gamekeepers were “on alert” after his van was spotted driving out of Fort William on the road towards Mallaig.
Arnwar Dar, defending, said his client’s rifle was worth L2,500, and it was 27 years since he had last been in trouble for poaching (when he was jailed for three months).
Sheriff Richard Davidson fined Kennedy L100 and ordered him to pay the estate the L70 value of the hind. He said he would deal with the case with a fine because of Kennedy’s “good work in the community”, but added: “It appears old habits died hard. Stick to Black Donald’s land in future.”
Kennedy, a retired fencing contractor, said outside court on Tuesday that “Donald” was a 90-year-old crofter who allowed him to shoot on his ground on the edge of Loch Morar.
A local estate factor, who did not wish to be named, said: “James is an okay guy, but a legendary poacher known as such all over the West Highlands. I think he quite enjoys the tag 'Prince of Poachers’.
“When the jungle telegraph alerts all the estates he is on the move people just say, ‘He’s out’, as if he was a German battleship or something. Everyone knows who ‘he’ is.''
The use of animal DNA as evidence in wildlife crime investigations was enabled by the establishment in 2011 of a Wildlife DNA Forensic (WDF) unit at the Scottish Government laboratories.