Two men separately accused of a series of hunting offences around Għadira ta’ Sarraflu, Kerċem, have been acquitted by the Gozo courts due to insufficient evidence.

One of men, George Muscat, 34, from Balzan, had been charged with exceeding both the daily and overall spring season bag limit in April 2013.

He was also accused of failing to send an SMS to notify authorities of his catches and not declaring them in the carnet de chasse.

Police Inspector Frank Anthony Tabone also charged him with the possession of protected species and undeclared stuffed specimens, found in a chest freezer inside an apartment in Victoria.

The court heard how the police were alerted to the case by an anonymous report.

During interrogation, the accused claimed the dead birds were recovered by his dog. However, he insisted that some of them had not been shot by himself.

Doubts persisted over whether the hunter had actually shot the birds himself

While admitting that he had “forgotten” to declare his catches, he insisted that the stuffed birds belonged to his partner’s father.

The court noted that no evidence was brought to prove that the man had actually shot at a protected bird, while nothing that incriminated him was found in a search of his vehicle.

As for the frozen birds, none of the officers involved could tell if these were fresh or not. Though experts had confirmed they were killed in spring, none of them could establish in which year.

There was neither any evidence to show that the man failed to send an SMS and exceeded his bag limit.

The court said doubts persisted over whether the hunter had actually shot the birds himself. It also absolved him from guilt in relation to the stuffed birds as they were not found on his property; the apartment belonged to his partner’s father.

In the second case, 37-year-old Daniel Grech of Victoria was accused of illegal trapping practices in December 2013 in the same area. A Birdlife member had claimed to have filmed him in the act.

The court noted that the footage was not shot from 50 metres, as Birdlife witnesses had testified, but from much further away. From such a distance it could not be ascertained if the accused was trapping banned species or not.

In addition, the police found no illegalities in the set-up of the net which, the court pointed out, had not been tampered with from the moment the man was filmed till the police came on site.

Police Inspector Bernard Charles Spiteri prosecuted.

Both cases were heard before Magistrate Neville Camilleri.