Gray family deny blame in Spindle Farm horse trial

Feb 26 2009 By Hannah Williams

The family accused of creating an 'animal Auschwitz' admitted that its farm was a scene of suffering and death but claimed they had nothing to do with it a court heard this week.

James Gray, 45 , his wife Julie, 41, and their daughters Jodie, 26, and Cordelia, 20, all face 12 charges of animal cruelty after RSPCA officers uncovered piles of horse skeletons and stables full of frail equines at Spindle Farm, Hyde Heath.

A teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons, faces the same charges.

The defence counsel team made up of barristers Nigel Weller, Michael Fullerton and Richard Cherrill told Bicester Magistrates Court on Wednesday there was "no case to answer" as part of a legal submission to have the case abandoned.

They claimed there had been no evidence linking Gray and his colleagues to the animal cruelty, presented to the court during the 11-week trial. Robert Seabrook, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said that despite all the defendants denying involvement with the offences, they acted as a collective and were all to blame.