t.cork@bepp.co.uk

The League Against Cruel Sports will be 'spoken to' by the Charities Commission for lobbying a top London company about its apparent sponsorship of a West hunt, after one of its members assaulted a League monitor.

Pro-hunt campaigners claimed that asking a FTSE 250 company about their sponsorship of an event staged by the West Somerset Vale foxhunt went outside the remit of a charity.

The bizarre row began with a physical attack on a League employee and has ended up involving magistrates, an anonymous FTSE 250 company, the Charities Commission and the League's lawyers. The League itself said complaining to the Charities Commission showed 'just how desperate' the pro-hunt lobby were.

Back in September, the WSVF's whipper-in David Bevan was convicted of common assault. A court heard how he attacked League monitor and sanctuary manager Paul Tillsley in March this year, leaving him needing hospital treatment.

After the conviction, the League approached a FTSE250 company, which it has declined to name, asking whether, in the light of the conviction, they wanted to continue their apparent sponsorship of the WSV's annual show. The League said the company responded within 24 hours to say they had never given permission for their name to be used, and had written to the hunt asking not to be associated with them.

Then, the Cirencester-based Campaign for Foxhunting stepped in, and complained to the Charities Commission that, in lobbying the company, the League Against Cruel Sports had stepped outside the 'stated objects of the charity'.

Before the 2010 election, the League was warned by the Commission for a campaign that was deemed to be party political, and the Campaign for Hunting's Tim Bonner said the League had stepped out of line again.

Mr Bonner said: "It is targeting Mr Bevan, his employers and their sponsors because of an altercation with one of its staff members, which the charity seems to believe requires action beyond the police and the courts."

Louise Robertson, the League's acting campaigns manager, said: "Most people will notice that a hunt employee convicted of assault while at work is not disciplined or condemned by his hunt or the pro-hunt campaign, and yet they embark on a strange campaign against us for daring to contact a major company to ask about its links to that hunt."