Pensioner Stephen Knops lobbed ball of poison on roof of undustrial unit on Airfield Road, Christchurch, where seagulls were nesting

A PENSIONER launched a homemade poison ball onto the roof of an industrial unit in Christchurch where seagulls were nesting, Poole Magistrates’ Court heard.

Stephen Knops (75) was seen by employees at the unit in Airfield Road throwing the orange-coloured substance, which prosecutor Siobhan Oxley said “broke up and scattered onto the floor and out onto cars underneath”.

She said workers gathered up pieces of the material and handed them over to police. Subsequent analysis at a laboratory revealed two different types of rat poison, along with bread.

Ms Oxley said the defendant admitted that he had “combined” two biocides, which he then used to concoct a “homemade ball which was cricket-sized”.

Knops, of Glendale Close in Christchurch, who had a unit next to the one he targeted, was caught throwing the poison on CCTV on 7th June 2021, the court heard.

At a previous hearing, he had pleaded not guilty to two charges of attempting to intentionally kill seagulls, in contravention of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

He had also denied two charges of killing seagulls and one of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.

But at Wednesday’s court hearing, Judge David Church was told by the prosecutor that all except the health-and- safety charge were being dropped and that Knops had pleaded guilty to that.

She said the defendant had accepted he had thrown the poison in a place where there was a “danger, or risk, to wildlife.”

Ms Oxley said that by combining the rat poisons Knops was “using them with no regulation and out of jurisdiction for which the poisons were intended to be used.”

She said the defendant claimed he had the poisons for “killing and controlling rats and they were not used for any other reason.”

In defence, Harry Price Smith said his client is self-employed and supports his out-of-work son to the tune of £150 a week. He said the defendant’s business would be “badly affected” if he went to prison.

Knops was intending to deal with rodents, he continued, and “there was no evidence he intended to kill seagulls”.

The judge interrupted him to say: “It was intended to harm something. Whatever the intended target was, he intended to kill something. Albeit, it is accepted it was not he intended to kill seagulls; he would say it was rats.”

Addressing the defendant, he said: “You definitely had an issue with animals at the unit while you were working. There were seagulls nesting on the roof, whatever your intention to kill, whatever was the target of that poison, you could have killed some form of animal.”

Knops was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work during a 12-month period, and pay court charges of £620.