Two men who admitted causing animal fights walked free from court today.

Luke James Byrne, 19, of Mill Houses, King's Lynn, admitted causing three animal fights by setting terriers on foxes and a rat caught in traps, when he appeared before King's Lynn magistrates in December.

Gamekeeper Christopher Carter, 49, of The Burrows, Gayton Thorpe, admitted one offence of causing an animal fight at the same hearing.

Byrne also admitted possessing three dead wild birds, a heron, cormorant and a buzzard.

Jonathan Eales, prosecuting for the RSPCA, showed magistrates video footage, recorded by Byrne, of the fights which saw dogs attacking a rat and foxes animals trapped in snares.

The first clip showed a fight between Byrne's dog and rat which took place on June 20, 2009.

The other videos showed Carter's two dogs attacking a fox on July 2, 2009 and a fight between one of Carter's dog and a fox on June 15, 2010.

Mr Eales said the offences came to light after a woman bought the phone from Byrne's parents on Ebay and found one of the video clips.

Both men were raided by the RSPCA and police, who found pictures of three dead birds - a heron, a buzzard and a cormorant - on a laptop at Byrne's address.

Mr Eales asked magistrates to consider depriving Carter of ownership of his dogs, which would then be re-homed by the RSPCA.

Mr Eales said the dog Byrne used appeared to be owned by a family member but asked magistrates to consider whether or not to disqualify both men from owning animals.

James MacWhirter, defending Byrne, said: 'If there was a case where you ought to temper justice with leniency, in my submisssion it's this kind of case.'

Mr MacWhirter said Byrne regretted his actions 'with every fibre of his body'.

In a letter handed to the bench, Byrne said: 'The guilt I feel and the shame I have brought to myself and my family is massive.'

Malcolm Savory, representing Carter, said his client had 15 character references and was a man with no previous convictions, who was of exemplary character.

'He is held in wide regard as a gamekeeper, as a family man, as a conservationist and a countryman,' he said.

'An essential part of a gamekeeper's job is the control of vermin and that includes foxes. It's an entirely legal procedure if done properly.'

Mr Savory said the offence which Carter had admitted occurred because he had allowed an inexperienced dog off the leash alongside a more experienced animal, which was marking a snared fox.

He said Carter was 'full off shame and self-disgust', adding: 'It goes against everything he knows, everything he believes.'

Magistrates retired for more than an hour to consider their sentence. Byrne was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months and 150 hours' unpaid work. he was also ordered to pay �500 costs.

Chair of the bench Alison Wakes-Miller said the bench did not feeel it necesssary to ban Byrne from keeping animals because of his previous good character and because it was not likely he would repeat the offence.

Carter was sentenced to eight weeks, suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 150 hours' unpaid work.

Mrs Wakes-Miller said: 'We do not believe you should be deprived of your dogs or banned from keeping dogs because this was a one-off and totally out of character.'