This is the extraordinary moment a Tory councillor appears to try and silence claims he was illegally hunting a fox by telling a female activist: “I’d quite like to SHAG you.”
Middleton hunt master Charles Carter, 33, is filmed telling the woman that she is “very pretty” before requesting her number and asking: “Can I take you to bed please?”
The young Breckland Council member made the remarks after being challenged by activists during a meet of the Middleton Hunt, North Yorks.
Police confirmed they are investigating the incident and constituents and animal rights activists have since called for Carter to resign or be sacked.
The shocking footage, filmed on January 23, shows a woman confronting Carter while he is on horseback, dressed in a red hunting jacket and helmet.
She begins: “Excuse me, did you know hunting was banned? Hunting is banned and I have seen video chasing a fox along there.
“Hunting is banned so why are you still hunting? You still get away with it don’t you, you lot?”
Carter, who has represented Saham Toney, Norfolk, since 2011, then takes his own mobile phone out, prompting the irate woman to retort: “What, you want to take a picture of me?”
He asks: “What’s your name?” and she replies: “I couldn’t give a shit. It doesn’t matter what my name is. I’m not bothered.”
Carter then calmly states: “I’d quite like to shag you actually.”
Clearly taken aback, the woman says: “Yeah I’ll tell you something … pardon! I’ll tell my husband that then shall I?”
But the huntsman, who has a girlfriend, international event rider Harriet Morris-Baumber, 28, according to Facebook, continues: “Can I take you to bed please?”
Speaking to a friend who tries to calm the situation, the woman screams: “Shut up Charlotte, it’s fine, it’s fine,” before Carter adds: “You’re very pretty.”
She retorts: “Oh yeah really, whatever. So are foxes before this lot rip them apart.”
Smirking, he simply replies: “Can I have your number please?” while she repeatedly says: “Smirk as much as you like.”
The huntsman then rides off without addressing the allegations, which is that hounds belonging to the Middleton Hunt, who meet every Monday, were chasing a fox.
Fox hunting has been banned in England and Wales since 2005.
According to Carter’s social media, he has been a hunt master and huntsman with the West Norfolk Foxhounds.
He’s also a ward member for Saham Toney, Norfolk, where his role includes “looking after the affairs of the residents at a local government level”.
Since being elected in 2011 he’s been a councillor and has also worked as executive cabinet member for growth, though he resigned from that position last November.
His Facebook page states that he now lives three-and-a-half hours away in Birdsall, York and works at Middleton Hunt, where he is the new hunt master.
It is not the first time the Middleton Hunt has come under scrutiny. In 2013, four hunt members admitted hunting a fox with a dog and were fined by York magistrates.
In 2015, North Yorkshire Police launched an investigation after footage of 16 fox cubs held in a barn near to the hunt‘s kennels emerged.
The force said they are investigating the altercation between Carter and the hunt saboteur.
They said: “North Yorkshire Police were called at 10.38pm on Monday 23 January following reports that an altercation had taken place at 2.50pm earlier that day between a man and a woman in Duggleby, Malton.
“Investigations are ongoing.”
Charles Carter, Breckland Council and the Middleton Hunt are yet to respond to requests for a comment.
His girlfriend, Harriet Morris-Baumber, who is an international event rider and trainer and has represented Great Britain, declined to comment.
A woman who said she was her mother, Kim Morris-Baumber, 58, said: “There is no connection with them other than the Facebook-related link.”
MFL – Comments from Breckland Council, Charles Carter, North Yorkshire Police and Middleton Hunt
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