“Nobody in their right mind could have thought that a prosecution was in the public interest, but I don’t know why it took five months and a superintendent to work that out.”
A Durham Police spokesman said in a statement: “There is a common misconception that deer carcasses can be removed from the roadside without permission of the landowner.
“It is, in fact, an offence to do so under the Deer Act 1991.
“However, in this specific case, we understand that Mr Carpenter had a genuinely-held belief that he was allowed to remove the animal from the roadside and the case has therefore been withdrawn.”
