Copyright picture by Mike Frisbee (0161 431 5297/07976 894624, 16 Lawton Road, Stockport, SK4 2RG)

A WOMAN who was trampled by cattle as she walked her dog in fields near her Eden home is suing a Greystoke farmer for £1 million in a civil action launched this week.

Shirley McKaskie, of Croft Barn, Greystoke Gill, suffered serious head injuries and was hospitalised for months following the incident at Millrigg Farm, near Greystoke, on 10th May, 2003. She appeared in court this week in a wheelchair.

The outcome of the case could have far-reaching implications for farmers nationwide who keep livestock and have footpaths crossing their land.

At a three-day county court hearing in Preston which began on Wednesday, Judge Nigel Howarth heard evidence from 49-year-old Miss McKaskie and from John Cameron, aged 66, the farmer at Millrigg, as well as from a number of civilian and expert witnesses.

The judge was told that Mr. Cameron, seeing the cattle attacking Miss McKaskie, went to her aid and took her on a quad bike back to the farmhouse, from where an ambulance was called. The cattle, a beef suckler herd of Simmental-cross animals numbering about 40, included a bull and a number of cows with calves at foot.

First to take the witness stand was Miss McKaskie, who said that on the evening of 10th May she had been walking from her home at Greystoke Gill to Greystoke, where she planned to meet her partner, Donald Cameron in the village pub. Mr. Cameron is no relation to the farming family of the same name. He is managing director of Penrith firm Primasonics and of sister company Sibus International, where he and Miss McKaskie had worked together for 20 years.

Miss McKaskie had with her a five-month-old Jack Russell puppy and said she followed her normal route across the fields, using a track which appeared to be worn through use.

However, under cross-examination she admitted she had not checked whether this was, in fact, the designated footpath, and had relied on the general direction of a nearby “footpath” sign, the fact that the track appeared worn, and that she and Donald Cameron had walked that way before.

An experienced walker, Miss McKaskie agreed that farmland might be expected to house animals, but was adamant that, had she known there were cattle in the field, she would not have entered.

Repeatedly throughout her testimony Miss McKaskie said she did not recall the details of the events of 10th May, 2003. In fact, she believed the attack had taken place in the first field she entered, known as Sealby Field, whereas John Cameron said he had found her and seen the attack taking place in the adjoining Bank Field, about 50 metres from the footpath.

She recalled seeing the cattle “trotting towards her with purpose” and picking up the puppy which she felt might have been in danger but did not recall seeing the cattle at a distance, before they approached. “If I had seen a bull I would have been terrified,” she said. As a result of her injuries she was able to remember little else.

Giving evidence for the claimant on Wednesday was Mrs. Pauline Payne, who said she, too, had been chased by cattle in the same fields at Millrigg, in an incident she described as “absolutely terrifying and like nothing I have experienced in 40 years of walking”.

Mrs. Payne at first said she thought these events had taken place in May, 2001, but under cross-examination agreed that this was impossible, as at the time farmland across the country was closed to walkers during the foot and mouth crisis. She then stated that it might have been a year earlier or later.

Mrs. Payne described a group of cows and calves running towards her and her two dogs, which were off the lead at the time, and eventually overtaking and surrounding them. By jumping over a gate she was able to escape injury, although one of her dogs was cornered and “butted” by the cattle, she said.

Under cross-examination, Mrs. Payne, who had been staying at a local caravan park at the time of the incident, admitted that she had followed her “instinct” in deciding the route of the footpath across the fields.

“I understand now that I was wrong, that the footpath was somewhere else, but you develop an instinct for these things and it never occurred to me that the footpath was anywhere else,” she told the court.

She had reported the incident to caravan site owner and farmer Richard Sealby, who gave evidence in court that he had mentioned the matter “casually” to John Cameron some time later. “I didn’t expect him to do anything about it that’s just farming,” he said.

Mr. Christopher Purchas QC, representing Mrs. McKaskie, told the court that he felt the case hinged on the matter of whether, had she strayed from the footpath, she could be classed as a “trespasser” on private land and said there might also have been an “implied consent” for her to use the alternative route if Mr. Cameron had not taken steps to steer walkers along the correct footpath.

Day two of the trial, on Thursday, saw farmer Mr. Cameron take the stand. Cross-examined about a statement made to the Health and Safety Executive by his wife and business partner, Mrs. Doreen Cameron, he said he had gone out into Bank Field on his quad bike after hearing the cattle “bellowing”.

He saw the cows “throwing something about” which, at first, he took to be a dead calf, but which turned out to be Miss McKaskie, who was on the ground and semi-conscious. He was, he said, “horrified” by what had happened and would remember the events of that evening for the rest of his life.

He described shooing the cows away and getting the injured woman on to his quad bike before taking her back to the farmhouse to get help. Mr. Cameron told the court that the behaviour he saw that day was totally “out of character” for his herd, many of which he had bred himself and kept for 10 years or more.

He said that the cattle might have been “spooked” by Mrs. McKaskie’s dog, which was on an extending lead at the time, or by some other factor. In his opinion, said Mr. Cameron, the cows, whose young ranged in age from five to nine months, would not have had particularly strong maternal instinct. By this age the mother-child bond in cattle is “almost non-existent”, he told the court.

“The mothering instinct is very great for the first few weeks, so I wouldn’t keep cows with young calves on a public footpath,” he added.

Questioned about his farming practices, Mr. Cameron said he had kept a group of suckler cows and a bull in the two fields containing the footpath for 12 years before 2003 without being aware of any problems.

Following the attack on Mrs. McKaskie, he had continued to keep cattle in the field for two years before dwindling stock numbers meant he moved them elsewhere on the farm.

The landscape of his holding, some of which was inaccessible to the heavy machinery needed for making silage, and the size of various fields, dictated where he was able to keep the cattle, he explained.

On the question of whether he should have put up a sign alerting walkers to the presence of cattle, Mr. Cameron said: “There hadn’t been any bother before. It hadn’t occurred to me because the cause hadn’t arisen for me to do so.”

He said that the responsibility for signposting of public footpaths lay with the authorities, not with the landowner, although he was aware that from time to time people took a route across his fields that was not on the designated footpath. “It is the responsibility of walkers to know where the footpath is,” he said.

Following the incident an investigation was carried out by the Health and Safety Executive, which decided no action should be taken against the Camerons.

Yesterday, expert witnesses for both sides gave evidence on veterinary and farming issues related to the case. The case continues.