A HUNTSMAN has been cleared of deliberately injuring a hunt saboteur when he rode his horse into her.

Peter Doggrell was found not guilty by a jury of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on 43-year-old Nicola Rawson.

She suffered seven broken ribs and a punctured lung when the 46-year-old huntman’s horse hit her as he rode into a gateway during a trial hunt on the Dorset-Somerset border on August 2014.

A dash cam video recording of the incident was shown top the jury at Taunton Crown Court – it was in a Land Rover vehicle being used by the five hunt sabs who were trying to disrupt the Blackmoor and Sparkford Vale hunt.

The video shows Mr Doggrell riding at pace into the field and hitting Miss Rawson who is left on the ground badly hurt.

Mr Doggrell told the jury he did see the Dorset hunt sabs in the field nor hear their horn which was being used to distract the 45 hounds.

He denied riding close to Miss Rawson and fellow sab Martin Porritt saying:”To tell the truth I’d only just seen them.”

Asked how close he was when he became aware of them, he replied:”I was more or less on top of them.”

He denied being irritated or annoyed by the disruption to what was a children’s drag hunt and also denied know the sabs were out.

The prosecution had claimed he had up to 15 seconds to see the Land Rover and was riding hard saying it was a ‘reckless act’.

He rode on after the contact but told police he thought it was a ‘glancing blow’ and did not realise Miss Rawson had been hurt until 20 minutes later.

The jury cleared him after a three day trial.

After the case Mr Doggrell said he felt justice had been done.

His lawyer Jamie Foster issued a statement which said:”Mr Doggerell is clearly delighted that his name has been cleared.

“The jury took no time at all to decide that he was not guilty. He would like to thank his lawyers, Jamie Foster and Peter Glenser.”

Mr Foster, the leading field sports solicitor in the UK says "Mark remains sympathetic to the injuries suffered by Nicola Rawson.

“It is clear, however, that those injuries were caused by the recklessness of the Hunt Saboteurs Association who need to take far better care of the vulnerable people they send into the countryside"