Mr Otis regrets...

Shropshire huntmaster Otis Ferry today said he felt "delighted" after walking free from court following months of "hell" after being charged with affray and assault.

Ferry, 26, the son of Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, was yesterday given a one-year conditional discharge for causing "fear, stress and upset" to a woman who tried to film him riding with a hunt.

He was slapped with a £350 compensation fine and £100 costs by a judge at Gloucester Crown Court.

He had faced charges of robbery, affray and assault, relating to the same incident on November 21, 2007, but instead admitted a public order offence.

Mr Ferry's defence barrister Mr George Cox told the court his client only got involved in a skirmish with hunt monitors because of the recent theft of his puppy by animal rights campaigners.

Today Ferry, of Eaton Mascott, near Shrewsbury, said it was "brilliant" the waiting was over.

He spent four months in prison before he was cleared of two counts of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Ferry said he had been subject to various campaigns of hate by animal right activists.

He said: "One of those incidents included my dog getting stolen.

"I have been through an absolute rollercoaster of hell including four months in prison for something I did not do."

Mr Cox revealed that two weeks before the incident near Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, Ferry's Jack Russell, named Tiny, had been taken by anti-hunting protesters.

Mr Cox blamed the "distressing" theft of Tiny for the fact Ferry had become involved in a "tug of war" for his victim's car keys, leaving her bruised.

The incident, in November 2007, began after Ferry had ridden to the aid of fellow hunt supporter John Deutsch, whose Subaru was held up as he was trying to get help for a sick horse.

Ferry, joint master of the South Shropshire Hunt, denied robbing the monitors, Helen Ghalmi and Susan Grima, of a Samsung camcorder, a Navman sat nav, and a set of keys.

He also denied charges of affray and assault, relating to the same incident on November 21, 2007, when he was a guest of the Heythrop Hunt.

Judge Picton told Ferry he had caused "fear, stress and upset" but accepted he had wrongly served more time in jail than the offence "could ever justify".

By Rebecca Lawrence