R v Leighton Ashby

Facts

The applicant, Leighton Ashby, and his co-defendant Oakley Hollands were students at Plumpton Agricultural College, both from agricultural backgrounds. On the night of 2 and 3 November 2023, after drinking alcohol, Mr Hollands drove the applicant and two other students to the Ditchling Beacon on the Sussex Downs. Between 11 pm and 1 am the group walked out onto the Downs, and the applicant and Mr Hollands ran ahead having seen a sheep. They chased a young ewe, which was surrounded by the group. The applicant swung the ewe violently from side to side, kicked it five times to the head, punched it repeatedly until it appeared concussed, and smashed its head against a wooden fencepost, while Mr Hollands filmed the attack on his phone, laughing and shouting encouragement to kill it. Fireworks were inserted into the ewe's mouth and anus and lit, and further damage was done to the carcass. The college was informed after a third party saw one of the videos and called the police on 6 November 2023. Having pleaded guilty before Brighton Magistrates' Court on 7 August 2025 to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, the applicant was committed to the Crown Court for sentence and, on 23 February 2026, sentenced by HHJ Gold KC at the Crown Court at Lewes to two years' imprisonment with a ten-year disqualification order. The Registrar referred his application for leave to appeal against sentence to the Full Court.