A WHIPPER-IN faces jail after he repeatedly used his horse as a "weapon" to repeatedly barge a hunt monitor off her feet while he was serving a suspended sentence.

Christopher Marles carried out the attack on Helen Weeks, 61, when she was filming the activities of the East Devon hunt last March.

He knocked her to the ground three times, despite her desperate cries to leave her alone. The incident was caught on her video camera.

At an earlier hearing, Marles, 47, had pleaded guilty to the assault charge, on the basis he had acted recklessly in riding his horse too close to the victim. But yesterday, magistrates in Exeter rejected his claim he had not intended to carry out the attack.

It also emerged Marles, of Farringdon, near Exeter, is the subject of a nine month sentence, suspended for two years, for an assault on hunt monitor Kevin Hill which left the animal welfare officer with two black eyes and in need of six stitches.

That incident happened in October 2005, while Mr Hill was filming the activities of the Devon and Somerset Stag Hounds. Exeter Crown Court ordered Marles to pay his victim £2,500 in compensation.

Yesterday, magistrates decided to refer the case to Judge Jeremy Griggs at Exeter Crown Court, who will decide whether the breach of the sentence warrants a jail term.

The chairman of the bench, Elizabeth Hibbick, found Marles had intentionally assaulted Ms Weeks with his horse.

The magistrates bench has recommended custody should be the "entry point" of any sentence.

During the hearing, Marles publicly apologised to his victim. But the magistrates ruled the apology was no indication the attack was not intentional.

The defendant said he will never hunt again following the incident.

But after the court case, Michael Moore, joint master of the East Devon hunt, revealed Marles had his red coat revoked as a result of the attack. He said: "We don't condone violence, and we don't want any member of the hunt involved in violence. We felt it was inappropriate for him to continue wearing a red coat to represent the hunt."

Speaking outside the court in Honiton yesterday, Ms Weeks, the founder member of Protect Our Wild Animals, primarily set up to protect foxes, said she believed Marles should go to prison.

She said: "His horse was completely under his control. It was doing its utmost to avoid me. He intentionally knocked me into the ditch those three times."

Ms Weeks was monitoring the hunt with Graham Forsyth, of the League Against Cruel Sports, who also captured footage of the attack.

Yesterday, she outlined the ongoing tensions between hunts and monitors, and claimed she had been subjected to intimidation, including a dead fox being left on her car outside her home in Somerset.

But she said she would not be deterred from monitoring hunts, and from campaigning to have anti hunting legislation strengthened to include a recklessness clause.

She said: "Not only would that protect the hunted animal, but it would also protect the hunt monitors from attack. They don't want us out there."

Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said the conviction sent out a "clear message" violence and intimidation against hunt monitors was a crime.

He said more than 50 hunt-related incidents have been reported to the police in the last hunting season in Devon and Cornwall alone.

"Hunts and hunters are not above the law and no-one should be left free to assault and intimidate other members of the public," he said.

Countryside Alliance spokesman Tim Bonner said there was "no justification whatsoever" for Marles's conduct. He said: "It's got no place in hunting, and neither has Christopher Marles."

But he said the case showed the laws in place were working properly to protect monitors.

"The behaviour is unacceptable and the courts have found him guilty," he said.

"I don't think there's anything here to suggest that the law needs to be strengthened."