Reality TV star ordered to pay £250k after ‘building work killed neighbours' prize falcons'

Independent

09-04-2025

A former reality TV star has been left with a £250,000 court bill after a dispute with his bird-breeding neighbours in a West Country hamlet. Barnes Thomas, a 29-year-old ex-London art dealer who appeared on Bear Grylls ' The Island in 2018, clashed with brothers Martin and Scott Nicholas, 32 and 31 respectively, over noisy building work on his farm in St Just, Cornwall.
The Nicholas brothers, who operate a falcon-breeding business called Raptors of Penwith Ltd next to Mr Thomas's property, claimed the noise resulted in the death of three valuable falcons, including a prize-winning bird worth £150,000.
They also alleged harassment, citing incidents such as caged peacocks being left outside Scott Nicholas's home and silage bales obstructing his sea view.
Mr Thomas, who described himself as possibly "the most hated man" in the village, denied the accusations and countered with his own harassment claims, including being pursued by a Raptors of Penwith employee in a van.
The "bitter" row sparked a case that went before the High Court in Bristol, with Judge Jonathan Russen KC now ruling in the brothers' favour and awarding Raptors of Penwith £258,500 damages from Mr Thomas and his company.
He said the noisy work constituted "nuisance and negligence" and had resulted in the deaths of three birds, including a race-winning gyr falcon, lost eggs and reduced breeding in the aviary.
However, although he accepted some incidents occurred, he rejected the claims of harassment from both sides.
Cornish-born Mr Barnes is a former London art dealer who in 2018 appeared as a contestant on Bear Grylls ' The Island, in which participants' survival skills are put to the test on remote, uninhabited islands.
He then moved to St Just, a picturesque hamlet close to Land's End, where in 2020 through his company he bought land, along with pigs, sheep and cows, and now runs a small farm, while living in a house he built on the site of a bungalow inherited from his grandmother.
The Nicholas brothers run their raptor business on adjoining land, breeding mostly gyr and peregrine falcons, which they mainly sell to be used in falcon races in the UAE.
Giving judgment on the dispute, Judge Russen said the "bitter" row which erupted between the three had "acquired real momentum...over a relatively short space of time."
He said Mr Thomas, who he described as "prone to overreacting to events," had "proved to be a controversial neighbour," creating a lake on his land and temporarily removing a stile on a public footpath, causing "opposition within the wider neighbourhood."
"Mr Thomas himself accepted that, before they fell out, he had told Martin and (his wife) Karen Nicholas in October 2020 that he may have been the most hated man in Mousehole - he had previously lived in Mousehole - and went on to say that he may now be the most hated man in St Just," he said.
"This was a reference to Mr Thomas pre-empting the switching on of the village's Christmas lights in Mousehole by him and his immediate neighbours illuminating their own decorations shortly before the village switch-on after a full countdown."
Setting out the case, he said the Nicholas brothers complained of numerous acts of harassment by Mr Thomas, constituting a "vendetta" against them, while he had countered, blaming them or their employees.
In one specific incident, Mr Thomas had based a peacock pen next to Scott Nicholas' house, causing disturbance, before leaving their carcasses in place after they were killed by foxes.
As well as excessive noise from his land, he was also accused of stacking silage bales in such a way as to block Scott Nicholas' sea views from his home.
Mr Thomas also complained of "frequent acts of harassment," complaining that Scott had destroyed signs and shouted aggressively at him, while he had also been chased in a van by one of the brothers' employees.
The brothers sued for nuisance and negligence, arguing that noisy work on Mr Thomas' land during their birds' breeding seasons had caused the death of three birds, reduced overall breeding and also resulted in egg loss, with some birds damaging them.
For three days, a JCB bucket had at one point been raised in the birds' line of sight, which Scott Nicholas said had caused them to "go mental at the sight of this alien object."
Through their company, they claimed the acts breached a duty of care 'not to cause or permit the falcons to suffer excessive noise or visual threats, in particular during the breeding season.'
Giving judgment on the nuisance and negligence claims, Judge Russen said he was convinced that the actions of Mr Thomas and his company, Upper Cot Estate Ltd (UCE), had caused the three birds' deaths.
"On my assessment of the evidence, Mr Thomas was made aware that March to the beginning of June was the time to avoid excessive noise and visual disturbances near the aviary," he said.
"I am satisfied by reference to the evidence identified above that Mr Thomas knew that both excessive noise and visual disturbances on UCE's land were to be avoided during the period March to May of 2022."
He said he had viewed videos taken in May within the incubation room of the brothers' aviary while building work was done on Mr Thomas' barn, which showed the "noise upsetting the birds."
"These activities, related to the building of the barn, cannot be said to be outside the ordinary and common use of agricultural land - but they were carried out without proper consideration of Raptors of Penwith's breeding season," he said.
In relation to the raising of the digger bucket, he added: "For the purpose of on-site inspection by an engineer, the bucket was raised.
"With the bucket raised next to the aviary for those three days, the machine broke the line of sight of at least some birds in the western pens.
"Scott's evidence was that the birds were 'going mental' at the sight of this alien object.
"Placing the digger on the birds' line of sight on 7 April, 2022, was entirely at odds with ensuring that no undue inconvenience was caused to Raptors of Penwith."
However, he went on to find it was not proven that the actions on Mr Thomas' land involved "malice, as opposed to carelessness."
"That reflects my assessment of Mr Thomas's evidence taken as a whole. The activity which gives rise to those findings was farming or farm-building related activity," he said.
"Even though malice has not been established, the proven acts of nuisance are in my judgment actionable because they were undertaken without proper consideration of the sensitivity of ROP's birds during the breeding season.
"Mr Thomas was previously aware of the need to avoid disturbances during the breeding season, and appears to have accepted that could be done, and yet the activities were undertaken regardless.
"I also find that those same tortious acts under the law of nuisance support a finding of negligence."
In relation to the harassment claims, the judge found that the brothers knew Mr Thomas intended to have a peacock house on his land and that they had to be confined due to bird flu restrictions.
"As Scott confirmed, because the peacocks were killed soon after their arrival they were not there long enough to cause a problem," he said.
"The factual allegation of stacking of silage bales has been proved - and not disputed - but I do not accept this was an act of harassment, done with the purpose of blocking a sea view from Scott's family home," he added.
In relation to Mr Thomas' claims, he found it "not proven" that anything amounted to harassment, including "the hot pursuit suggested by Mr Thomas."
He rejected the harassment damages claims, but ordered that Mr Thomas and his company are liable to pay the Nicholas brothers' company £258,500 damages for the impact on their birds.