Death by gyrocopter

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That poor huntsman, sliced to ribbons in a field as if he was just another piece of the 'vermin' he killed as a job and a hobby. Such an ironic shame!

How they could possibly consider charging anyone with murder is beyond me. I'd like to see them try though.

[major.tom]

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It seems he was hit by the rear rotor while it was on the tarmac. I don't know much about flying, but I know enough not to get within slicing distance.

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Man Charged Over Gyrocopter Death
March 11, 2009

A man has been charged with the murder of hunt supporter Trevor Morse who was killed in a collision with a gyrocopter. Warwickshire Police said the man would appear before Nuneaton Magistrates Court tomorrow accused of killing the 48-year-old.

Mr Morse died after he was hit by the aircraft at Long Marston airfield near Stratford-Upon-Avon as he followed a hunt on Monday afternoon. Two people were arrested on suspicion of murder following the incident, which happened just after 3pm. The second man was released on bail tonight pending further police inquiries.

A police spokesman said: "Two men were arrested at the scene and have been in custody at Leamington Spa police station. One man has tonight been charged with murder. The second man has been released on police bail pending further inquiries." A post-mortem examination carried out at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire revealed that Mr Morse died as a result of severe head injuries.

Long Marston airfield, an RAF base between 1941 and 1954, is now home to the Avon Microlight club, Freedom Sports Aviation, and the Shakespeare County Raceway Dragstrip. The site is also well-known for dance festival Global Gathering and the Bulldog Bash motorbike show.

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This is going to be quite a case - they must have some proof that the pilot spun the back end round with the intent of killing.

[major.tom]

This gets more and more strange. A gyro is basically a plane -- one rotor for lift and another for thrust. There is no tail rotor like on a helicopter, so spinning would be difficult unless you had no forward velocity (in which case, I think you'd just spin with the rotation of the main rotor, out of control).

I doubt they can prove intent to kill unless they just landed on the guy, using their vehicle as a weapon.

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Hunt protester cleared of manslaughter fears reprisals
Birmingham Post
Mar 22 2010

An animal rights enthusiast who piloted a gyrocopter that killed a hunt supporter has spoken of his fear of reprisals following his acquittal for manslaughter. The blade of Bryan Griffiths’ gyrocopter struck and killed Warwickshire Hunt member Trevor Morse on March 9 last year at Long Marston airfield.

Mr Griffiths, 55, was cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday. But he is now worried about reprisal attacks by hunt supporters who, he said, may feel he has not been made to pay for Mr Morse’s death.

He said: “If I had gone to prison I might have been safer because if these people felt I had received some punishment for what happened they might have let it drop. I would not put it past them to take it upon themselves to seek a bit of payback. If you go up against some of these people it can turn nasty.”

Mr Griffiths installed CCTV at his home in Bedworth, Warwickshire, a while ago and is on a police list of priority callers. If he sees an unfamiliar car outside his house, he takes down the registration number. He also has metal railings running along the side of his property and has asked a neighbour with CCTV to “keep an eye on stuff”. He fears for the safety of his wife, Dawn Griffiths, 53, as well, he said, and was particularly worried when he was incarcerated at HMP Hewell for seven weeks following his arrest and she was on her own at home.

“Ever since I started monitoring these people I was aware how they could be,” he said. “I know that my activities were making them particularly upset. I wouldn’t say everyone in every hunt is a thug but every hunt has its element of thuggery. They don’t like being watched and they’ll do anything they can to try to stop people watching them.”

But Mr Morse’s death will stay with him for the rest of his life, he added. “A man died and that’s not going to be something you forget very quickly. At Christmas the thought crossed my mind that this was going to be his partner’s first Christmas without him.”

A two-week trial heard that Mr Morse’s head was cleaved “from top to bottom” by the rear rotor of the gyrocopter as he tried to stop it from taking off. The jury heard that the 48-year-old was killed instantly when he refused to move out of the way as Mr Griffiths, who had been monitoring the Warwickshire Hunt from the air, drove towards him. It was claimed in court that Mr Griffiths believed he had been shot at from the ground and feared a gang was on the way to attack him.

Mr Griffiths described feeling “numb” when he saw Mr Morse on the ground and realised he was dead. “I couldn’t believe what had happened,” he said. “The last 12 months have probably been the most traumatic of my life. Obviously it’s been totally traumatic for Trevor Morse’s family as well. He and I disagreed on fox-hunting but somebody dying is a different thing altogether.”

It is too early for him to say whether he will continue to monitor hunts, he said. His hunt-monitoring future will partly depend on whether the hunting ban is repealed under a Conservative government.

Nor does he know yet whether he will be able to continue to fly his gyrocopter. Although he would be “really disappointed” not to, he is awaiting interviews with the Civil Aviation Authority and his insurance company, who may have other ideas. “I spent a lot of time and money learning to fly and I love it,” he said. “I go every time the sun is shining, not just to monitor hunts.” The hunt on March 9 last year was the fifth he had monitored since buying the aircraft in summer 2008.

Mr Griffiths, a self-employed heating engineer, also spoke of the relief he felt when the jury acquitted him after seven and a half hours of deliberations. “I always felt I was innocent but with a jury you just don’t know,” he said. “On Wednesday I had a bag packed in case they did cart me off. I was fully prepared for the jury to come back with a different decision.”

He has received a lot of support from sympathetic members of the public since he was charged, he added. “When I was in prison I had more than 100 letters of support from people,” he said. “I also had one letter from someone in California calling me a murdering thug.”

Sam Butler, a Warwickshire Hunt master, said: “At no stage has anyone in the Warwickshire Hunt ever discussed using any form of physical action against hunt monitors.” He described Mr Morse as “one of the most gentle men” he had ever met and said the Hunt was “devastated and very upset” by his loss. He added: “It was Mr Griffiths who was on trial, not Trevor Morse or hunting.”

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I can just imagine the sort of mad bastards who would be on his tail - and the vast majority will never have been on a horse, let alone been involved in hunting. The sort of people who scream about how it's 'political correctness gawwwn mad'...