I totally agree that he should be punished heavily for these acts as they were clearly against the law.
However, I find it interesting that this is happening close to a Red Kite feeding centre. None of the articles I have read really say why he did what he did though some describe hm as a wildfowl collector, whatever that is. But maybe, just maybe he felt his livestock (if he had any) under threat by a daily concentration of predators passing overhead. Maybe if there wasn't a profit making feeding centre nearby attracting a concentration of abnormal (and growing) numbers of birds at the same time every day, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe if the birds were allowed to just disperse and drift about the countryside in their ones and twos this might not have happened.
There is still no excuse for what he did but by the same token is there any reason for these large unnatural concentrations (other than the money involved). Is this not something that was likely to be inevitable as the numbers of the population of Red Kites grow yet are retained in one area because of an unnatural free food resource?