How an IT mix-up led a BBC investigation to unmask one Europe’s biggest dog fighters | UK News

Dog fighting is as secretive as it is barbaric.

The people behind the illegal bloodsport carefully conceal their identities, fearful of arrest and prosecution.

However, one dog fighter’s IT mix-up led an undercover investigation to unmask some of those involved in “one of Europe’s largest dog fighting networks”.

The has tracked fighting kennels to unlikely places in the UK – from a busy housing estate to the grounds of a stately home.

A simple mis-click from one member of a top-secret online dog fighting forum exposed the brutal reality of today’s dog fighting.

The leak revealed graphic match reports documenting fight after fight, injured animal after injured animal.

A vast haul of intelligence was quickly harvested by the animal welfare charities, the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) and the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA).

That was the first glimpse of a highly secretive international dog fighting syndicate – one which the has spent the past six months investigating and exposing.

“I can’t really put into words actually, it was just golden,” said Russ Middleton, a former police officer turned Head of Intelligence for LACS.

The law across the UK bans not only fighting, but also owning fighting dogs, training them to fight, trading animals and even filming fights without good reason.

“There was a whole range of different dogfighters in there, all collaborating, chatting, sharing videos. It gave us a real insight to the global perspective of dogfighting.”

Mr Middleton described the network as “one of the biggest in Europe”.

Following a trail of evidence hidden in pictures, posts and videos online, the has been able to expose an organised network of illegal dog fighters – one that stretches from the UK, across Europe and beyond.

Dog fighting is much more common than people think, according to experienced vet David Martin who was an expert witness in previous dog fighting cases.

“It is going on in probably every major town and city in the UK.

“It is enormous amounts of abuse and cruelty at every stage,” said Mr Martin.

The League Against Cruel Sports received more than 600 reports of dog fighting since 2024, with those reports increasing by more than 50% in the past two years.

However, it says the number of dog fights taking place in the UK is impossible to quantify – the secrecy of the fights means far more are taking place than get reported.

For campaigners like Russ, any dog fight is one too many.

The investigation found several UK-based dog fighting kennels, hiding in unlikely places.

In one case, the owner of a dog who had recently killed its opponent in the pit, had a kennel nestled in a busy housing estate in County Armagh populated by families and their pets.

“They want to keep their dogs out of sight, they don’t want to be identified by the authorities as someone who has got dogs that are banned,” Mr Martin said.

“They would have to be extremely careful if they were going to take their dogs out to the environment to make sure that their dogs didn’t come across other dogs, otherwise there would be bloodshed.”

Another kennel was found hidden in the grounds of one of Northern Ireland’s most famous stately homes, Shane’s Castle Estate.

The estate’s grounds were used by Boneyard Kennels, to house and train fighting dogs.

The USPCA and LACS have identified Boneyard Kennels as one of the UK’s most significant dog fighters.

Shane’s Castle Estates told News NI that it is opposed to dog fighting and was shocked to hear that a dog fighter was operating within its grounds.

It said, if it had known, this would have been stopped.

The identified the man behind Boneyard Kennels as David Patterson, a mixed-martial arts coach from County Antrim.

We traced about 40 fighting pit bulls to Boneyard Kennels – matching several of the dogs’ pre-fight training videos to a walled garden deep inside the Shane’s Castle estate.

David Patterson denied participating in dog fighting and said he is not a member of any international dog fighting network.

He said he often looks after dogs for other people and is interested in human and animal fitness.

The also saw evidence suggesting that Craig Kitson, an associate of Patterson’s, was also a member of the dog fighting network – operating under the alias Spongebob.

The name Spongebob was listed as a referee in several dog fighting match reports, and as a handler of Boneyard Kennels’ dogs.

Craig Kitson previously made headlines for a graphic video he was in holding his deceased dog.

Its muzzle taped, Mr Kitson bit the dog’s ear, suggesting this was punishment for the dog having bitten his child.

Craig Kitson told the he was not actively participating in dog fighting and that he is not the person identified as Spongebob.

He expressed deep contrition over the video in which he bit the dog’s corpse, stating he had not been responsible for its death.

Posing as a dog fighter, the was able to infiltrate online platforms and win the trust of members of the wider European network.

After several months, one member of the syndicate was willing to meet in Amsterdam to sell the team a fighting dog.

Zoltan Borbe, known by the alias NFK Kennels, was secretly filmed boasting about his fighting dogs.

“I have one grand champion female that maybe I sign here for the seventh match,” he said – unaware he was speaking to a journalist.

A grand champion is a term used for a dog which has won at least five fights.

Borbe sent videos of the black pit bull he was selling, a two-year-old named Ruby, to display what is known as its gameness – the determination of a dog to fight in the pit.

Zoltan Borbe later denied involvement in dog fighting, telling the he made up the story to sell dogs.

The secrecy surrounding dog fighting means that few animals are rescued – those who are often risk being euthanised. In the UK, pit bulls are a banned breed.

Ruby has been placed at a centre in the Netherlands that works to try to rehabilitate high-risk dogs through training programmes.

“It’s just a lot of observation,” said Hella Van Den Beemt, the centre’s lead therapist.

“To be fair towards the dog, you always have to go in with an open heart and just give the dog every room that it needs and you will bond with the dog.

“They always have a chance, but there are a lot of factors that we have to consider in that.

“If it’s really strongly embedded in a character, then we have to calculate the risk.”