Butterfly collector who netted protected species avoids prison

Philip Cullen (57) was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work for capturing the globally endangered Large Blue butterflies at two protected sites. He was also given a five-year criminal behaviour order banning him from three nature reserves popular with the Large Blue (Maculinea arion). Bristol Magistrates Court heard that Cullen scrambled over locked gates and was seen swiping a child's net at a Large Blue before leaving the Daneway Banks in Gloucestershire with a plastic bag containing glass jars. The following day, volunteers at the Collard Hill site in Somerset challenged Cullen after seeing him with the small net. Police later raided his home in Bristol and found a large number of dead and mounted butterflies, including Large Blues. Unemployed Cullen had labelled two of the butterflies, which he claimed were from France, 'DB' and 'CH', the initials of the two sites where he had been seen. Prosecutor Ian Jackson told the court: "These charges are brought on the grounds of endangering a species. A rare and beautiful butterfly that has once been found extinct and is struggling to establish a foothold."...more