DJ's dad kills gull for pooping in salad

A member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds shot a seagull dead after it pooped in his wife's salad, a court heard yesterday.

Retired medical lecturer Brian Boughton blasted the gull before beating it with a stick and stringing it up in his garden by its wings.

The 62-year-old father of Radio 1 DJ Emma B was driven mad by seagulls that plagued his seaside home.

He even set up an action group to combat them, Totnes magistrates court in Devon heard.

Dr Boughton, a lifelong member of the RSPB, had managed to get rid of the flock of gulls nesting in the roof of his home in Dartmouth, Devon.

But when two returned on April 9 last year he feared a repeat invasion and opened fire with an air gun. His anger was triggered when one of the gull's flew past a window and sprayed bird muck over his hair, jacket, curtains and wife Elizabeth's lunch.

After killing the bird the grandfather-of-one smacked it with a stick and tied it between two trees in his orchard.

RSPCA officers, acting on a tip-off, found the bird's carcass and charged him with illegally killing a seagull.

Dr Boughton admitted shooting the bird but denied breaking the law because he had a Government licence to kill them if they posed 'a threat to public health'. He told the court: 'I did not enjoy shooting it.'

He said his home was so plagued by gulls ripping open bin bags and leaving droppings that it was like living in 'medieval squalor'. He was found guilty of illegally killing a wild bird and given a one-year conditional discharge. He was also ordered to pay £400 costs.