If you go down to the woods today you're sure for a big surprise.
Well, that was certainly what happened with one keeper recently when he went to check his traps. Noticing that the trap was not as it had been set the night before, the keeper grew suspicious and decided to check the camera footage.
What should he find but none other than Luke Steele, the career criminal with shady links to white supremacism, with an accomplice. It is difficult to say for certain what is going on here however what we know is that a trap was set legally and left overnight.
The next day the trap has been tampered with and therefore could then be deemed 'illegally set'.
At that point it would seem that the accomplice is taking a close up photograph of the trap, post tampering. That photograph could then likely be used to try an insinuate that a trap had in fact been set illegally.
A second camera would then reveal that Luke Steele entered the woods with two accomplices, all of whom look like extremely shady individuals. Work is underway to find out more about these individuals.
Damaging and vandalising traps is illegal. Those who advocate their destruction sometimes think that it is to the benefit of wildlife. This could not be further from the truth. We have a responsibility to help keep wildlife populations in balance and legal trapping plays an essential role in maintaining this.
Luke Steele's previous crimes include evidence manipulation. As recently as last month he was cited as providing bogus evidence to Unearthed, the RSPB and the BBC that suggested there was widespread controlled burning on deep peat. In fact in that example the evidence he presented as current was from five years previously when it was entirely legal to carry out controlled burning on deep peat.
It would seem this is just the latest example of Luke Steele's manipulation tactics against gamekeepers. The footage has been passed on to the police.
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