A retired police inspector has been ordered to pay compensation after he allowed a rare £10,000 show-jumping horse to wander off his land to its death.

The road accident that killed Coral Bay Reef, a bay mare expected to have a great future in the equestrian world, caused a bitter rift between the owner and a close friend on the show-jumping circuit.

Pamela Acaster, 64, decided to sell the horse after her husband's ill health forced her to give up Richmond Equestrian Centre in North Yorkshire.

She asked a friend Joanne Robson to oversee the sale, and moved to Spain.

Newcastle County Court heard yesterday how, just five months later, the horse-lover received a call to say Coral was dead.

Mrs Acaster told the court how she was told her horse had been sent to Morley Hill Farm in Hazelrigg, Newcastle, to stay with farmer George Ireland.

She said: "She was not just a valuable commodity, she was a beautiful horse.

"I heard she had been taken to Morley Hill Farm, then the next thing I heard she had been killed.

"Mr Ireland rang my son, Martin, and said she had been killed by a car. I was absolutely devastated. He didn't say sorry."

The court heard how Coral was killed after a gate was left open in his field and she wandered off to graze at a nearby roadside.

She was spotted by Northumbria Police patrol officers but died instantly after she was hit by a car before she could be returned to safety.

Mr Ireland insisted the horse was kept in a secure field surrounded by at least one 3ft 9in barbed wire fence.

Mrs Acaster, who now lives in Norfolk, said Mr Ireland insisted the horse had been sent to him to be slaughtered.

Judge Peter Bullock ordered Mr Ireland to pay £1,750 compensation and £531 costs.

He said: "There was nothing wrong with this horse. If this was the horse that had been in the shows, it would become a vital asset.

"Of course we know the horse escaped from this field, but there is no evidence as to where it escaped.

"Either it jumped the fences or it got out through an unsecured gate.

"In my view, it seems to me unlikely the horse would have jumped these fences."

Judge Bullock agreed to allow Mr Ireland six months to pay the award due to his financial situation since the foot-and- mouth crisis began.