One man is in jail and a second has been told to prepare for prison after they were caught badger-baiting in North Yorkshire.

Stephen Thomas Rose, 38, and Kenneth Wade, 29, had travelled 33 miles from their homes in County Durham to target the wild animal with a dog in open countryside. The badger died.

Rose, of Mardale Street, Hetton-le-Hole and Wade, of Airedale Gardens, Hetton-le-Hole, both initially denied a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog by placing it in direct conflict with a badger. They then changed their plea during the hearing at York Crown Court and pleaded guilty.

They had also been charged with killing a badger and interfering with a badger sett but those charges were dropped at York Magistrates' Court in July for legal reasons.

The incident happened on January 25 last year near Richmond in Swaledale. 

Sentencing was adjourned until October 31.

Releasing Wade on bail, the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told him to “put his affairs in order” and warned him he faced a jail sentence. He imposed conditions on his bail that he live at his home address and observe a nightly curfew.

York Crown Court heard he had a similar conviction to the dog charge from 2017.

Rose attended the case via a video link to prison and was remanded in custody until the sentencing date.