Animal activist nearly killed in hunt attack says horror injuries won’t stop him protesting
Exclusive: Saboteur who suffered broken ribs says he still regularly goes out to try to prevent illegal hunting
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An animal-rights activist who suffered life-changing injuries including a split shoulder blade when a hunt member trampled over him with his horse says he has no regrets about trying to stop hunting.
Mel Broughton said he thought he was about to die under the horse, and was left screaming in agony when he suffered six broken ribs, a split in his shoulder blade from top to bottom, three breaks in his collar bone and a tear in one lung.
Paramedics had to give him morphine, and he was airlifted to hospital after the attack in Northamptonshire in 2020, which left him unable to work.
He had been with three other saboteurs going to monitor the Pytchley with Woodland Hunt when riders and hunt supporters clashed with his group.
Mr Broughton spoke out after Christopher Mardles, 27, from Petworth, West Sussex, a hunt member who rode his horse towards the protesters, was jailed for 18 months on Thursday.
Mardles had admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm during a hearing in March at Nottingham Crown Court. He was found not guilty on a further charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent when prosecutors offered no evidence.
After the sentencing, Mr Broughton, who still has eight screws and a metal plate holding his shoulder together, told The Independent he had no regrets.
“I don’t say that in a way of being very brave or anything, but hunting was supposedly banned in 2004, and all we see week in, week out is the tiny minority of people believe the law doesn’t apply to them and that somehow they have a right to carry on hunting, even though the vast majority of people in the country oppose it.
“They act as though they have an intrinsic right to do this. I find it absolutely unacceptable.”
Since hunting was banned, hunts insist they follow a scent trail to stay within the law.
Mr Broughton said that on 5 September 2020 he and fellow protesters in the Sibbertoft area saw riders on horseback and masked supporters on quad bikes.
The saboteurs said that as they were targeted, their three cameras were either smashed or taken from them.
“Chris Marles recognised me – he called me by my name,” Mr Broughton recalls. “We were walking across a field and all of a sudden I turned and the horse hit me full-on.
“I remember going down, I remember the horse hitting me and I was thinking ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die’.
“The pain was excruciating and I screamed out in agony.
“I couldn’t move. Two colleagues came over but I remember I saw Chris Marles and the hunt riders galloping off. Neither they nor the quad bikers looked back.”
The veteran animal-rights campaigner, 63, who has been a hunt saboteur for nearly 40 years, said he still suffers constant pain from his injuries, which also affect his sleep.
But he said he still regularly goes out to try to stop wildlife crime, even though his mother has asked him not to because of the dangers.
Hunters who break the law were making a mockery of democracy, he added. Opponents say “cubbing”, for instance – training young hounds to hunt cubs – is common practice in autumn.
In a victim personal statement to the court, he wrote: “I still keep playing that moment over in my head all the time.
“I thought I was going to die, I really did. I was out to campaign, but I didn’t ask for that, I didn’t deserve that. I can’t understand that he was so unconcerned that he didn’t even look back.
“I keep seeing that moment and him just galloping on. I was screaming out in pain and they just carried on hunting.”
Lead investigator DC Craig Copeland, of Northamptonshire Police, said: “I welcome the sentence handed out to Mardles today as his reckless actions that day could have had fatal consequences.
“The injuries he left this man with were extensive and he continues on his journey to recovery.”