WEST Devon farmers who were charged with assault following an alleged incident on their land at Vixen Tor, near Merrivale, have had the cases dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service. Mary Alford, 55, of Moortown near Tavistock, was accused of attacking climbers at the enclosed tor ? her son Robert Alford, 31, was charged with assault on a climber, causing actual bodily harm. Both charges were dropped at Plymouth Magistrates Court last Tuesday. The case against 57-year-old Francis Yeo, also of Moortown, who had been charged with criminal damage for allegedly cutting a climber?s ropes, was also discontinued. The privately-owned Vixen Tor was open to the public for some 30 years until it was purchased by Mrs Alford two years ago. It has been the scene of protests by ramblers who say it should be open to the public ? but it has been excluded from access maps drawn up under the new Countryside and Rights of Way Act and a public inquiry has also ruled in Mrs Alford?s favour that the tor should remain closed. Mrs Alford has stated that Vixen Tor is part of a working Dartmoor farm and that her insurers have advised her to ban access to the land.
