A pigeon fancier took a rival breeder's prize racer hostage in a bizarre attempt to track down his own missing birds.

Brian Tumilty, 41, had been devastated when arsonists caused £30,000 worth of damage to the pigeon loft he inherited from his father in August last year.

More than 100 birds perished in the blaze and many prize specimens were stolen.

But instead of reporting what happened to the police, Tumilty turned sleuth and decided to track down his missing feathered friends himself.

And after he was wrongly informed fellow fancier Stephen Elliott may know the location of the birds, Tumilty took Mr Elliott's £2,000 champion racer hostage in exchange for information.

Feathers flew during his clumsy attempt to spirit the bird away in the dead of night and resulted in a wing injury that ended its racing career.

Father-of-three Tumilty, of Crawcrook, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, ended up in the dock at Newcastle Crown Court where he admitted a charge of burglary at Mr Elliott's cree in Shilbottle, Northumberland, on September 9 last year.

Tumilty's barrister Glen Gatland told the court: "Mr Tumilty was very upset about the arson attack at his cree because the birds had been given to him by his father.

"When the birds were taken he felt that was part of his inheritance gone.

"He was, he accepts, mistakenly told Mr Elliott knew something about these birds whereabouts and that is why he went there, to see if they were in the cree.

"When he realised the weren't he decided to take the bird hostage so that he could say to Mr Elliott he would get his bird back if Mr Elliott would help him recover his own.

"It would always have been returned one way or another, possibly by letting it go."

The prizewinning bird taken by Tumilty was quickly returned to a neighbour of Mr Elliott after Tumilty had an attack of conscience about grabbing a fellow fancier's bird.

She had recently won a race from France to the UK and was a champion breeder.

But because her wing was broken during the fracas at the cree, she has been forced into early retirement and has ceased laying eggs as well as she had done in the past.

Judge David Wood fined Tumilty £250 and ordered him to pay £500 compensation to Mr Elliott.

The judge told him: "Someone had destroyed your pigeon loft and you had reason to believe the owner of this one knew the whereabouts of your birds.

"All of this boils down to one thing - someone who wants to take the law into his own hands.

"if you had a suspicion you knew where your birds were you should have told the police, they could have gone around and had a look.

"But it was your choice to do things your own way and go around and take one of his birds hostage, as it turns out a very valuable bird.

"Now here you are, standing in a crown court dock in relation to all of this.

"These sorts of offences are taken very seriously by those involved in this type of thing.

"It is a sport which some people regard as very important to their lives therefore one cannot underestimate the seriousness of this."

Speaking after the hearing, Tumilty said: "I lost my temper and went over there in a rage.

"Pigeons have been by hobby for 25 years and my father has been involved with them all his life. I'm now banned from racing them forever because of this conviction.

"I don't steal pigeons. I just went to Shilbottle and checked one the ring on one of the birds.

"I realised it was not one of mine so I left. Before I left I handed the pigeon to a neighbour.

"Its wing was not broken when I saw it.

"All I wanted was my own pigeons, why would I want to pinch one of his.

"I know I shouldn't have done it. I took the law into my own hands and I shouldn't have. "I wouldn't have taken the pigeon hostage, I mean where would I keep it? The first chance it got it would fly straight back home.

"If I had taken it I would probably have ended up in court for kidnapping."

Tumilty said after further investigations he managed to get six of his pigeons back.

Mr Elliott said after the hearing: "He tried to say the bird had been hit by a car and that he was returning it to the loft when he was caught by one of my friends.

"But I knew straight away that couldn't be true because there was no way the bird could have been out.

"The injury is very sad, she was a prize racer and now she can only fly two feet off the ground at best.

"I know he has had to pay compensation but this is just not about the money it's about racing honour.

"We get money from a race but that just about covers the cost of the race - it's about the glory not the cash.

"My dad kept pigeons and my grandad before him, it's a great tradition in my family and we've never seen anything like this before."