INVESTIGATORS continued to find dead fish floating on Oxfordshire waters days after pesticides poured into a brook, a court heard.
Timothy Hook, of Cote, Bampton, denies one count of causing a water discharge activity by causing a poisonous or noxious substance to enter a ditch and brook near Fyfield, West Oxfordshire.
Prosecutors claim that as a result of his crop sprayer tipping over during an accident on May 12 2014 the 37-year old caused the deaths of hundreds of fish, destroying up to half of one species at the centre of the incident.
As the trial at Oxford Crown Court continued yesterday former investigating officer at the Environment Agency Rebecca Hibbard detailed her involvement following the pesticide spill.
She told jurors that on May 15, three days after the accident, she visited six locations from the epicentre at the A415 and A420 roundabout, to the River Ock in Abingdon.
She took a series of samples and made written observations about the condition of the fish in the ditches and brooks.
The court heard that at two of these locations, nearer to the roundabout where the crop sprayer turned over, a number of dead fish, likely brown trout, were seen floating on the river surface.
Hook denies any wrong doing and the trial continues.
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