A French hunter has been jailed for shooting dead Briton Marc Sutton
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A French hunter who accidentally shot and killed a Briton out mountain biking in the Alps has been jailed for year.
Marc Sutton, 34, originally from Wales, was fatally shot with a rifle while cycling down a popular route near his home in October 2018. He had been wearing bright clothing and was hit in an open area with clear visibility.
Hunter Lucas Clerc, 24, swore he had a wild boar in his sights when he opened fire just 150 metres from a residential area. “The boar was Mr Sutton,” said the prosecution.
Mr Clerc reportedly broke down in tears when the court in Thonon-les-Bains found him guilty of “manslaughter for deliberately breaching security and caution obligations”.
It sentenced him to a total of four years in prison, three of them suspended, along with a 10-year hunting ban and five year ban on owning a gun.
Three other hunters and the wife of one of the accused were also handed suspended sentences of between six and 18 months for concealing evidence.
During the trial, the court heard that the mostly inexperienced party had flouted basic safety rules, notably on angling shots towards the ground. The fatal bullet was fired at chest height. One member had drunk a bottle of wine, two beers and smoked cannabis before the hunt.
Those convicted had altered hunting logs to lend weight to false claims there were not in the area at the time, and later put up signs warning of a hunt to make it look like they had taken precautions.
When asked about the litany of failings, one member of the group told the court: “It’s always been like that”.
Marc Sutton with his partner Jo Watts
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Well integrated into the local community, Mr Sutton had lived with partner Jo Watts in La Côte-d’Arbroz, near Les Gets in the Haute-Savoie region of France, for four years before he was killed. The couple ran a catering company in Les Gets serving ski chalet operators and had recently opened their healthy food café in the centre of the town.
Speaking after the verdict Ms Watts said: “I’m happy that the hunters have been judged and hope that they have Marc’s death on their conscience and that they think of him every day.”
“It’s hard to accept the fact that Marc’s death could have been avoided if basic security rules had been put in place,” she told local newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré.
“I only hope that people will learn lessons and that nobody else has to suffer the loss of a loved one in such circumstances.”
Frédéric Noetinger-Berlioz, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said the verdict “appears to satisfy the family” and was "relatively balanced".
In court, he had described the hunters as “pathetic and pitiful”, arguing that they had “acted like wild beasts and that’s being unkind to wild animals.”
Hunting, he claimed, had not been the cause of Mr Sutton’s death, but rather “delinquent hunters who observed no safety rules”.
Every year in France dozens of people are accidentally killed or injured by hunters. Last year, there were 141 casualties and 11 fatalities, a high death toll but nevertheless 71 per cent lower than 20 years ago, according to France hunting and wildlife office, ONCFS.
Marc Sutton was shot dead while mountain biking in the French Alps
Credit: Facebook
Charles Lagier, a lawyer representing the hunters of Haute-Savoie had insisted: “This is not a trial of hunting but of a bad hunter who has dishonoured his peers.”
But Steve Downs, a friend of Mr Sutton and founder of hunting victims’ group, L’Union des victimes de la chasse, said: “This case has shone a spotlight on the toxic side of hunting culture and the fact that they put lives in danger every season.”
More than one million people hold game-shooting licences. A recent poll found that 70 per cent of French citizens are afraid of being shot if they take country walks during the autumn shooting season.
Many locals, said Mr Downs, lived in fear and “cannot enjoy the countryside around them as they run the risk of being victim of a stray bullet most weekdays and the entire weekend”.
He called for a clampdown on rules, including making all members of a hunting party collectively responsible for an accident, making alcohol consumption a criminal offence during hunts, restricting powerful weapons for young hunters, and imposing better risk assessment beforehand.
“We are not trying to stop hunting we are trying to avoid deaths."
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