A pair of hunt employees have launched appeals against their convictions for breaching hunting laws.

Huntsman Derek Hopkins and terrierman Kevin Allen, of the Harborough-based Fernie Hunt, were found guilty earlier this year after a seven-day trial.

Hunt monitors filmed them apparently chasing a fox and digging it out of a badger sett for it to be chased again, in breach of the Hunting Act and Protection of Badgers Act.

Hopkins and Allen denied the offence when they originally appeared at Leicester Magistrates' Court but were found guilty.

Their legal team appealed and a five-day hearing began at Leicester Crown Court yesterday.

It will mean a judge and two magistrates will examine the complete case, viewing footage and hearing from witnesses and countryside experts.

Caroline Bray, responding, told the court that the case included footage of a day's hunting.

She said: "The DVD shows that there are hounds on the scent of a fox at about 1pm and that the fox has gone to ground."

Ms Bray said huntsman Hopkins rode up on his white horse and then instructed terrier man Allen to introduce a terrier into the sett.

She showed the court a DVD of the incident, which occurred at Stonton Wyville, north of Market Harborough, on January 27, 2010.

Ms Bray said the DVD showed hounds collecting around a badger sett, "marking it", and the hunt assembling as men on foot dug at the sett's entrances.

A fox is then seen running from the sett and hounds heading in the same direction, followed by members of the hunt.

League Against Cruel Sports investigator Ed Shepherd gave a commentary of the footage he shot at long range, which showed the Stonton Wyville incident and a later occasion when he filmed Hopkins allegedly encouraging hounds to follow the scent of a fox at another location.

Under the hunting law, it is legal for hounds to follow an artificial trail laid by an employee or member of the hunt.

It is also legal for a hunt to shoot or kill a fox using a bird of prey if they come upon it by accident.

But Mr Shepherd told the court he saw no-one laying an artificial trail for the hunt to follow. He said at Stonton Wyville, he saw no net to catch the fox and no-one with a firearm to shoot it.

When convicted in January, Hopkins (46), of Welham Road, Great Bowden, was ordered to pay £2,115 and Allen (52), of Nether Green, Great Bowden, had to pay £1,565.

A national fund-raising drive launched by the Fernie Hunt to pay for the appeal has so far raised tens of thousands of pounds.

The hearing continues.