30 Mar 2026
A decision is expected soon on whether there will be charges brought for the destruction of three Peregrine falcon eggs at St Albans Cathedral almost a year ago.
The incident, which occurred on April 7 2025, reportedly saw a man walking over the eggs on the livestream camera set up to watch their progress.
Herts police said at the time that they were working with partners at St Albans Cathedral and the National Wildlife Crime Unit to look into the incident.
A statement added: “We are also in contact with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. Officers from the Rural Operational Support Team are speaking with a man to assist with their enquiries.”
In July police confirmed that their investigations were finished, and the matter had been passed over to the Crown Prosecution Service.
But this week the St Albans Times was told that officers from the Rural Operational Support Team (ROST) have now submitted extra information required by the CPS and Herts police are now awaiting a charging decision. Exactly what additional information was required has not been made public.
An attempt by a member of the public to find out more about the case by submitted a Freedom of Information request also failed to yield results, with a request relating to whether any prosecution decision had been made blocked on the grounds that it would harm the investigation.
A Herts police spokesperson explained: “When an investigation is live it is not appropriate to give out any information to the public through FOI requests. Updates regarding ongoing cases are only released through official police channels. This is to protect the integrity of the investigation, ensure the judicial process can proceed unhindered and to ensure that data protection legislation is adhered to.”
The pair of Peregrine falcons at St Albans Cathedral have captured the public’s interest since their first chick hatched in 2022, and the public have been able to watch their every move on the nesting tray high up on the Cathedral during their breeding season, courtesy of a live webcam feed set up in 2023.
Last year the webcam attracted over half a million views, and there was a huge outpouring of public upset when the eggs were destroyed.
But this turned to joy when a second clutch of three eggs was subsequently laid in May and hatched later in the summer.
