THE head of one of the biggest badger cull campaign groups was arrested at a Defra site at Aston Down Business Park on Bank Holiday Monday.

Stop The Cull protester Jay Tiernan was chased on foot by police and arrested after climbing over a barbed wire fence into the site near Minchinhampton.

He was arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and bailed until November.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Constabulary said: "A 42-year-old man has been released on police bail until November 4.

"Under the bail conditions set, he has been told he is not allowed to enter or go within one mile of the Aston Down Business Park."

Jay Tiernan told ITV News that he was trying to gather photographic evidence after hearing reports that 200 ‘rusty cages’ and ‘industrial sized fridges’ were being prepared to hold dead badgers.

It comes as the first badger cull gets underway in Somerset with a cull in Gloucestershire expected to start by the end of this week.