Two guilty of dolphin charges
Updated on 17 April 2008
Two men who swam with a dolphin after a drunken night out have been found guilty of harassing it.
Michael Jukes, 27 and Daniel Buck, 26, were both ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work after magistrates convicted them of intentionally or recklessly disturbing a wild animal.
Dover Magistrates Court heard how the pair had "touched and stroked" Dave the dolphin as they went for a late-night swim at Sandgate near Folkestone, Kent, in June last year.
The bottle-nosed dolphin became a popular tourist attraction for visitors to the Kent coast, but a lack of recent sightings has led to speculation that it has since died.
The court heard that during the incident on June 9 a witness had heard one of the men shout "people pay hundreds of pounds to do this in Florida and I'm doing it in Folkestone."
Buck admitted being pulled along by the dolphin by grabbing hold of its dorsal fin and Jukes said he had stroked its belly.
The pair had decided to have a swim at around 5am after attending a party at a friend's house where they had both been drinking heavily.
The two men said they had not realised they were doing anything wrong in swimming with the dolphin and said they even thought the animal had "enjoyed itself" as much as they had done in swimming with it.
But in summing up the case chairman of the bench John Offord said a number of experts had been called in to consider whether the dolphin's normal pattern of behaviour was disturbed, interrupted or troubled by the defendants' actions in the sea, and that the evidence had demonstrated that it was.
He referred to DVD footage of the incident that was filmed by a witness which showed the dolphin swimming towards the men head on and breaching the water, signs which showed the animal was distressed.
James Barnett of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue said that interaction with the two men would make the dolphin more likely to become tame and therefore endanger it.
Mr Barnett, a vet with nearly 20 years experience who has been involved in many marine animal rescues across the country, explained that when dolphins become too familiar with humans they can become unpredictable and dangerous and even make sexual advances towards them.
Mr Offord also said there were a number of other reasons why the pair had been found guilty.
He referred to a number of discrepancies in what they had said when originally questioned by police and when they gave evidence in court.
He also referred to the fact that they had refused to leave the water even after police arrived and ordered them to come out when they were called by nearby residents complaining about the noise.
Despite the defendants' claims that they had sobered up by the time they reached the beach the court heard that they had admitted being drunk in interview.
However, Mr Offord described the men's actions as those of "recklessness", rather than that they had intentionally tried to disturb the dolphin.
Pipe-fitter Jukes and civil engineer Buck, both from Folkestone, looked shocked as the guilty verdict was read out.
They were told they must complete the 120 hours of work in the community within the next 12 months and were also each ordered to pay £350 in costs.
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