Farmer who used forklift tractor to move a car parked on his land is CLEARED

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A farmer who used a forklift tractor to move a car parked on his land was today cleared of dangerous driving after telling the jury, ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle and my castle starts at that front gate’. 

Fourth-generation hill farmer Robert Hooper, 57, insisted he had a lawful right to defend his property, with his barrister arguing on the basis of a 400-year-old precedent set by the legendary jurist Sir Edward Coke.  

In a ruling known as Semayne’s case, Sir Edward established the Common Law principle that everyone has the right to defend their home, and – while issuing his ruling – uttered the famous phrase. 

The jurors in Hooper’s case found themselves with the task of deciding whether the same principle applied to smashing up a Vauxhall Corsa, and went on to clear him of dangerous driving and criminal damage.

Hooper told the court his property, Brockersgill Farm at Newbiggin, County Durham, had been burgled eight times and police had been slow to respond.

He claimed he was punched four times by drilling apprentice Charlie Burns, 21, a passenger in the silver Corsa, who he described as ‘agitated and full of himself.’

His partner Karen Henderson told jurors that shirtless Mr Burns was ‘wired’ and ‘strutting around’, issuing threats to her as well as Hooper.

Mr Burns and his friend, the car driver Elliott Johnson, parked on Hooper’s land when the car suffered a double blow-out as the pair made their way home to Tyneside after they and five friends had spent the day at Low Force waterfall.

The party had been drinking crates of lager, and although Mr Burns said he’d had six or seven bottles of Corona he insisted he was not drunk.

Asked by defence barrister Michael Rawlinson why he did not simply call the police, Hooper replied: ‘I have had quite a number of burglaries at the farm over the years, about eight in total.

‘We have not had the best response from the police and there was not time for anyone to be coming I did not think.

‘There is an unmanned police station at Barnard Castle about 15 miles away and the next one is at Shildon and it would take an hour to get there from Shildon.’ 

Hooper told the court he smashed up the car against a backdrop of recent antisocial behaviour that had plagued his and neighbouring farms. 

‘The area had had an influx of youths coming, particularly at Low Force which is just half a mile to a mile up the road,’ he said. 

‘There has been antisocial behaviour, drug taking, people lighting fires, knocking walls down and blocking the roads with parking, causing a threat to people as well.’

He said he knew from experience that youths visiting the area had threatened people.

His neighbour Jacky Meeson told the court Teesdale had been invaded during lockdown at a time when Britons were unable to spend the summer months abroad. 

She said: ‘In lockdown there was an influx of visitors from all over England. Our area became very popular because of the rivers and countryside and hordes of people came out who were not used to being in the countryside but wanted some freedom.

‘With that came a lack of respect for the countryside and the people who live there.

‘By that I mean kids buying boxes of beer, discarding the cans, taking drugs and leaping from bridges into the water, backflipping.

‘There was a general feeling of being invaded by something we were not used to.’

On June 5 last year Hooper had come in from sillaging and baleing  for his tea with Ms Henderson when he saw the car reverse onto the drive so he took his terrier, Eddie, and drove down to speak to them in a farm vehicle.

He told the court: ‘I said ‘now then lads can we have this car moved, I need to be in and out.’

‘Instantly Burns was right in my face, Throughout Covid we’d been two metres from people and here he was five inches from my nose. he was on edge and agitated and full of himself.

‘I asked him politely again ‘can we have this car moved?’ and he said ‘I’m not f***ing moving this car.

‘With that he punched me in the face which rather shocked me. I said I was only asking him to move the car. ‘

He said that Burns punched him a second time, the blow splitting his lip.

Hooper told the jury: ‘My mind was racing and my heart was. I thought ‘we have a bit of a problem here.

‘These lads were half my age and I didn’t know if they had weapons or what they were capable of. I wanted to be away from them.’

He raced back to the farm and switched vehicles to a telehandler  tractor, attaching a forklift device used for shifting bales of hay.

Hooper then returned to the car. He said: ‘I was frightened and shaking, I didn’t know what they were going to do.

‘Earlier Karen had told me she’d seen a second carful of youths associated with them parked at the road end. I was worried for my safety, for Karen’s safety and the general safety of the farm, I did not want Burns anywhere near.’

Sitting in the telehandler he asked them again to move the car but, he claimed, they refused, shouted abuse and were beckoning him on, shouting ‘come on.’ 

Hooper said: ‘If they had moved the car it would have been fine, I’d have done nothing.’

Using the forks he picked up the back of the Corsa, intending he claimed, to push it out onto the road.

However the car clipped a post of the farm gate and flipped over, causing massive damage. He then pushed the car onto the B6277 road outside, depositing it on a verge which he said was the only safe place to leave it.

In the course of the manoeuvre he was punched twice more by Mr Burns who was also kicking the wheels of his vehicle. One of the punches dislodged his glasses which ended up in the footwell.

Hooper said: ‘He launched an onslaught through the window. He punched me, I panicked and thought ‘I need to get out of here.’

As he swung the vehicle round it struck Mr Burns to the back, causing an injury that left him with difficulties walking in the days the followed.

Hooper says Mr Burns approached the house at least three times as he and his partner hid inside waiting for the police to arrive after the incident.

Hooper said: ‘Burns was pointing to his head shouting ‘do you think I’m mental?’ He was pulling on the electric fence, pulled up two posts and bent the farm gate as he tried to lift it off its hinges.’

In his closing remarks, David Ward, prosecuting, said: ‘Mr Hooper clearly acted out of anger and then tipped that vehicle on to its

side, pushing it out of the gate, driving dangerously out on to the road, criminally damaging it at the same time with no lawful excuse.

‘He was not protecting himself or his family at the time and continues the dangerous driving by swinging that vehicle round and knocking Mr Burns to the ground with the lifting forks.’

Mr Burns claimed that Hooper angrily acted with no warning as they tried to reason with him.

He said he and Mr Johnson explained to Hooper that they were about to call for a recovery service for their vehicle which had suffered a double tyre blowout. 

‘They had only parked there to get the car safely off the road, he said.

He told the court Hooper refused to listen, telling them: ‘I’ll f***ing move.’

Hooper denied dangerous driving and criminal damage on the basis he acted in self defence. 

In his closing remarks, David Ward, prosecuting, told the jury the Crown was not saying Hooper was a “thug”, but that his actions were “utterly irrational” on the day.

Judge Ray Singh had outlined routes to verdict for the jury, explaining the law surrounding self-defence and a defendant protecting himself and his property. 

The jury cleared him of all charges.