A huntsman has been cautioned for hitting an anti-hunt protester with his whip.

Jamie Hawksfield was arrested yesterday for assaulting library assistant Jaine Wild at a meeting of the Crawley and Horsham Hunt close to Shipley, near Horsham, on February 27.

Mr Hawksfield, county chairman of the Countryside Alliance, was taken to Crawley police station where he received the police caution.

Mrs Wild, 49, from Bognor, said she and about eight other protesters were using a recording of hounds to distract them during the hunt.

She said: "The day had gone really well and no animals had been killed.

"Towards the end of the day I think the huntsman got frustrated with us. It was like they couldn't cope with us anymore."

She said she was then involved in a confrontation during which she was approached by Mr Hawksfield.

She said: "I had a camera on me and he tried to hit it with his whip but he missed and hit my hand."

She had to go to casualty at Chichester Hospital after her hand became swollen.

Mr Hawksfield, managing director of Equestrian Vision, a firm which produces equestrian videos, denied he had assaulted Mrs Wild.

He said: "It was a storm in a tea cup.

"Nobody was hurt - she says I hit her and I say I didn't. There was a fracas and I was foolish enough to raise my whip.

"The reason I accepted a caution was so didn't spend the next year of my life having to fight an allegation which we are confident was totally inaccurate."

In July last year, huntsman Jonathan Broise was cleared of causing actual bodily harm to Mrs Wild and her husband Simon.

The couple came across Mr Broise in Pheasant Copse, Petworth Park, on October 9, 2002, when he was leading the Chiddingfold, Cowdray and Leconfield Hunt.

They said they were assaulted by Mr Broise, leaving Mrs Wild needing six stitches in her face and treatment for a displaced septum and Mr Wild with bruises on his face.

Mr Broise, 46, of London Road, Petworth, was found not guilty at Chichester Crown Court.