It is difficult to say exactly what kind of artist Peter Lister is, although given the events that led up to his appearance in an Oxford court last month, where the 70-year-old was convicted of the intentional shooting of a wild bird, the chances are that his job description is prefixed with the word “piss”. The court heard that the defendant had fired his air rifle at the bird which was perched in a tree. The neighbour in whose garden the tree was saw the bird fall and thereafter reported Lister to the police and the RSPCA. Lister, who had previous for possessing indecent images, came across as a thoroughly unpleasant and aggressive individual, a view shared by the court that in finding him guilty then fined him £500 and awarded compensation of £750 to the RSPCA, plus £50 court costs. One can have no sympathy for Lister, but one is moved to wonder at the distorted values that guide our judiciary.
Not so far away and a year earlier Megan Thornbury, 36, of Newnham on Seven in Gloucestershire, was found guilty on three charges of assault by beating, after she attacked three hunt followers, two of whom were teenagers. This event was given extra piquancy with the news that Thornbury earns her living as a nursery nurse; not usually the sort of role one associates with inflicting GBH on complete strangers. Sentenced to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work, Thornbury was also ordered to pay £50 compensation to each of her victims, a £60 victim surcharge and £200 court costs. So a dead pigeon in Oxford comes in at a cool £1300 for the offender, whilst attacking three people (one of whom described the assault as “terrifying”) is only worth just over £400. As the Americans would say: “Go figure”.