A cockfighting gang has been jailed after detectives uncovered a huge blood stained fighting pit.
Cockfighting gang jailed after detectives uncover blood stained fighting pit
15:53, 17 November 2017
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Cockerels armed with sharpened spurs were pitched against each another in a building where the group had designed a ring complete with seats and fake grass.
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When police raided the fighting pit in Ilford, east London, they found blood staines on white walls and found several distressed birds inside - writes itv.com.
A total of ten cockerels and two hens were seized by police and animal welfare officers during the raid earlier this year.
Mohammed Arif, 44, Akhtar Hussain, 47, Mehtab Ahmed, 41, Mohammed Asab, 51, Altaf Hussain, 54, and a 16-year-old boy were found guilty of animal welfare offences at Barkingside Magistrates court.
The RSPCA and police received reports of a cockfight taking place in an outbuilding in Ilford on 2 January this year. When officers attended, seven men were found in the outbuilding and a bird was spotted flapping around inside.
Officers also saw someone put something into a cat carrier and, when later searched, an injured cockerel was found inside.
An artificial grass square was being used as the cock fighting pit and seats had been arranged around the edge like a viewing area. Fresh blood was splashed across the fake grass and there was blood splattered up the white walls behind. That blood was tested and found to be from a cockerel.
– CLIFF HARRISON, RSPCA INSPECTOR
At Romford Magistrates Court the youth was handed an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £180 in costs and a £20 victim surcharge.
Asab and his co-defendants Arif, both of Ilford east London, Hussain, Greenhill Grove, east London, Ahmed, of Woodford Green, east London and Hussain, of Coventry, West Midlands, were bailed to appear back at court in December for sentencing.
Cockfighting was banned in England in 1835 but still goes on in various circles with successful prosecutions in Brighton in 2012 and Bournemouth in 2014.
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