A man is facing charges of killing a swan after he was caught smuggling the bird’s body away from the banks of a river.
Mohammed Miah, 29, from Bedford, is charged with killing a non-schedule 1 wild bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
A spokeswoman for Bedfordshire police said that Miah was apprehended taking the body away from the Embankment, near the Swan Hotel, Bedford, on 10 May.
She said: ”We cannot be sure what he was going to do with the swan, but because he appeared to be taking the body away then one assumes he had something in mind for it.”