Anti-Brexit Lawyer Who Battered Fox to Death in a Kimono Will Not Be Prosecuted

Close up of a Red fox looking at butterfly - stock photo Close up of a Red fox looking at
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Victoria Friedman

Jolyon Maugham QC will not be prosecuted for beating a fox to death with a baseball bat in London on Boxing Day whilst wearing his wife’s kimono.

The anti-Brexit lawyer had tweeted the day after Christmas day, “Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How’s your Boxing Day going?” prompting calls from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) for witnesses.

Mr Maugham had also informed his social media followers that he was wearing his wife’s “too small green kimono” at the time of the cudgelling and that he had killed the urban fox after it became entangled in the netting that he uses to protect his urban chickens.

On Thursday, the RSPCA confirmed that Maugham will not be prosecuted, saying in comments reported by the BBC: “An independent post-mortem and forensic veterinary assessment of the fox’s body was carried out and findings indicate the fox was killed swiftly.

“Therefore, in this case, the prosecutions department determined that the evidential threshold needed to take a prosecution under the CPS code was not met under any legislation relating to animals or wildlife.”

The animal charity added: “When making prosecution decisions, we must be fair and objective and make them on the facts of each case.

“It is important to understand that it is not necessarily illegal to kill a fox, but if unnecessary suffering is caused, a criminal offence may have been committed.”

The lawyer had said that under the situation, he did not know what else to do and acted in defence of his fowl. However, he apologised for the tone of his tweet, which he recognised that some people may have found upsetting.

The lawyer shot to notoriety for his work with Gina Miller to frustrate Brexit, for having fought Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament, and for taking the Electoral Commission to the High Court over what he considered its inadequate investigation into Vote Leave’s 2016 campaign spending.

Last year, however, Breitbart London’s James Delingpole heralded Maugham as an unwitting hero of Brexit, pointing out:

If Gina and Jolyon hadn’t fought so hard against Brexit it is a racing certainty that Theresa May’s utterly disastrous Brexit In Name Only “deal” with the EU would have passed through Parliament. May would likely be still prime minister. And Boris would be just a thwarted backbencher.

How delicious is the law of unintended consequences!

…

And for this, if nothing else, they deserve to be celebrated from this day to the ending of the world.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.