A WINSFORD man has an ‘unhealthy interest’ in cockfighting which led to him taking part in the activity, a court heard.

Raymond Weedall, of Crook Lane, is standing trial at Chester Magistrates Court, charged with offences relating to organised animal cruelty and cockfighting.

The 61-year-old has denied 12 charges including the keeping of metal spurs, as well as allegations of mutilation, the suffering caused by mutilation and the conditions in which cockerels were alleged to have been found.

On Friday, Iain O’Donnell, prosecuting for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), told the court that police had executed a search warrant at Weedall’s Winsford home at 9am on June 8, 2011.

Giving evidence, PC Trevor Jones confirmed that police and officers for the RSPCA attended and searched the premises.

Talking of the search of the master bedroom, PC Jones said: “The draws were already open and I was shown the third draw and I could see cockfighting spurs.”

He added: “I remember seeing the spurs clearly, they were made of leather with steel hooks.

“They were clearly plural, more than two, but as I didn’t go searching through the draw, I couldn’t see the full number.”

PC Jones said he then arrested Weedall, who allegedly said: “Yes, I don’t do what you are saying I do, it’s all exhibition stuff, rosettes and cards.”

The court heard that a large amount of cash, perhaps amounting to £15,000 or £20,000, was also found and a dog, a pole cat ferret, two other ferrets and eight cockerels were seized.

Granville Rooley, defending, explained Weedall’s response to the cash sum and told the court the defendant said: “You are joking, I don’t know where you are getting it from though, Christ I have been working for 45 years.”

Mr Rooley added: “He has explained as far as the money is concerned, it was money arising from legitimate work.”

RSPCA Insp Chris Heyworth, from the society’s special operation unit, told the court cockfighting DVDs and magazines from the Oxford Game Club were also seized.

He said: “The Oxford Game Club from my previous experience of seeing its year book, appears to be a club concerned with the breeding and possibly fighting of cockerels.

“It appears to have quite a few members - I don’t know the ins and outs, but that appears to be what it’s about.”

He said he had read ‘anecdotal’ pieces in the magazines which were concerned with cockfighting.

Mr Rooley told the court the magazines were concerned with ‘the breeding of old English game birds’.

He added: “From the covers of the DVDs, it is fairly obvious they were connected to cockfighting in the Far East.

“They weren’t connected to cock fighting of old English game.”

Ch Insp Mike Butcher of the RSPCA’s special operations unit said he thought the cockerels that were alleged to have been found at the defendant’s home address were of a ‘fighting breed’.

He told the court that he thought the defendant had an ‘unhealthy obsession with cockfighting which has gone over to actual practice’.

Talking of the alleged items in Weedall’s house, he said: “There was a marked lack of anything of anything to do with bird showing, he’s got spurs, he’s got books, he’s got the right birds.

“To my mind, it builds a bigger picture, to me its about cockfighting nothing much else.”

Weedall denies all offences and claimed during a police interview he was an ‘animal lover’ with a keen interest in cockfighting, but had not participated in it.

The trial continues.