A leading wildlife filmmaker has been cleared of sabotaging animal traps on a private estate but banned from returning to the land.


Sylvia Meller and fellow animal lover Serena Joiner had been accused of going onto the Coombe Estate at Gittisham, near Honiton, and damaging or removing three traps and 35 snares from a tunnel.


The prosecution agreed to offer no evidence after the two women were prevented from going back to the estate by a restraining order.


Ms Meller’s videos of a family of wild beavers playing in the River Otter in Devon have delighted tens to thousands of viewers from all around the world. Her YouTube channel features films of beavers, otters, hares, hedgehogs and birds.


She has also campaigned against the government’s cull of badger and is a member of the East Devon Wounded Badger Patrol.


Meller, aged 45, of Norman Crescent, Budleigh Salterton, and Joiner, aged 44, of Redhills, Exeter, denied damaging 35 fox snares on June 7, 2020.


They also denied stealing three Fenn traps, each worth £7, from gamekeeper Simon Fuller in the same incident.


Judge Timothy Rose recorded not guilty verdicts and told the woman that it was the same as them being acquitted by a jury.


He made a restraining order prohibiting both women from going to the Coombe Estate at Gittisham for three years


He told them: “The point is to ensure some legal control over the situation for a reasonable period of time so everyone can move on.


“You should both understand the criminality of breaking the order. It is a really serious order. If you break it, you can be prosecuted and go to prison for up to five years.


“I am sure it has been explained to you that it is no laughing matter. If you should have a sudden rush of blood to the head and decide to go back there over the next three years, it could render you liable to imprisonment.”


Miss Caroline Bolt, prosecuting, offered no evidence but pointed out that the Coombe Estate is private land and the women would not be welcome there even after it expires.


Miss Judith Constable, defending, said both women had no intention of going back there at all for the rest of their lives.