AN ANTI-BLOODSPORTS campaigner has been fined by magistrates after admitting he disrupted grouse shooting on the moors above Keighley.

Luke Steele, 25, pleaded guilty to a charge of obstructing people engaged in a lawful activity by trespassing on land used by the Bingley Moor Partnership grouse shoot when he appeared at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The charge against Steele, of Woodside View, Burley, Leeds, related to August 21 last year, when the court heard he caused a shoot at Keighley Gate to be delayed by walking up and down the shooting butts.

He was also said to have intimidated those taking part in the shoot by taking pictures of them.

Prosecutor Stephen Rushton said: "Mr Steele walked down the butts and disrupted the shoot for a considerable period of time."

In mitigation, Steele's solicitor Anita Banjeree said he was an animal rights activist who was being disruptive rather than intimidatory.

"He believes the shoot should not take place, and that is the reason for his behaviour," she added.

Chairman of the bench Kenneth Duckworth fined Steele £70, also ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £20 surcharge.

Steele, who is a spokesman for the Ban Bloodsports on Ilkley Moor group, had also faced two further charges of the same offence – relating to incidents at Hog Hills on Bingley Moor on August 13 last year, and Castle Drive on Burley Moor on August 15 – but those charges were withdrawn at the start of yesterday's hearing.