Lewis man convicted in slaughterhouse trial 18/12/13
A Lewis man has been found guilty of breaking food safety rules in an unapproved slaughterhouse within in a large garage beside his croft house on the west side of the island.
Council environmental officers raided the premises and found 32 carcasses and 77 sheep heads after getting a tip-off in November 2011.
The premises had a professional bandsaw bench for butchering and fridge chillers for storing meat.
The court heard that local crofters got sheep slaughtered for about £13 a head.
At Stornoway Sheriff Court this afternoon, Norman Campbell was found guilty of possessing carcasses for sale or supply - which contained risk material which could cause scrapie, the sheep variation of mad cow disease.
Campbell had previously pleaded guilty to having 58 sheep heads in open sacks near food or animal fodder breaching laws to keep which failing
The 24-year islander also admitted not marking the sheep heads with a dye to highlight their danger to food stuffs.
He accepted that as the occupier of the garage, he failed to keep the potentially scrapie-contaminated heads properly separated from the meat.
Campbell was cleared of three charges over allegedly running a dirty, unkempt abattoir.
In delivering his verdict, Sheriff David Sutherland pointed out that there was insufficient evidence during the two-day trial to concluded that Campbell was actually in charge of the slaughterhouse.
The slaughtering took place beside vehicles and crofting implements in an open corner with an open corrugated roof it was said.
The trial had heard allegations of a lack of proper precautions preventing the spread of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) which cause a brain disease fatal to sheep by not keeping sheep’s heads and spinal cords away from where they could contaminate raw meat.
The hanging racks could accumulate dirt and mould, there were no insect-proof screens, a bandsaw and fridges were corroded with surface pieces breaking off, there was no hot or cold running water to clean knives, while the floor, walls, ceiling and doors were not kept clean, it was claimed.
Campbell maintained that the slaughterhouse was run by his father, also called Norman, who kept a flock of 250 sheep.
Only by coincidence was his father ill on the day of the raid officers when Campbell was caught cutting up sheep carcasses as a favour, he had told the court.
Mr Campbell senior had also been charged but died in April.
Lawyer Katy Begg told the court the family believed the stress over the pending court case and the length to take it to court affected the father’s health.
All the meat in the garage including the sheep heads was intended for the family’s own use and ate a carcass about every ten days, Campbell insisted during the trial.
He maintained they lived on a regular diet of sheep head’s soup and mutton with “meat on our table every day.”
Sheriff David Sutherland fined Campbell £1,500 to be paid at £300 per month.
The sheriff said the court had heard of his father’s involvement and it was unproven that Campbell junior was actually the legal person responsible under the law.
► Islanders warned against using unapproved abattoirs