CONVICTED (2011) | William Sumner Christian Edge, born 23/01/1971, of 33 Beckford Court, Tyldesley M29 8GF – cut a puppy’s throat during a row with his partner.
During a heated argument with his partner, Edge grabbed the young dog and held a knife to his throat.
Edge, a former security guard at the Trafford Centre, claimed that the dog wriggled, causing the blade to pierce his throat. But prosecutors argued that the wound showed that “considerable force” had been used and was consistent with a “stabbing action” rather than an accident.
The dog required emergency surgery to save his life.
Edge admitted assaulting the woman and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
Sentence: 16-week suspended sentence; £350 in costs. Two-year ban on keeping animals.
CONVICTED (2011) | Matthew Falkingham, born 18/08/1991, of Moorside Avenue, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury WF13 4QH – killed his ex-girlfriend’s kitten in a revenge attack.
In June 2010 Matthew Falkingham killed his ex girlfriend’s two-month-old kitten Daisy by putting her inside a pillow case and slamming it against a wall.
He sent Stacie Baker a text telling her “I’ve killed your cat and wrecked your stuff. I hope I have ruined your life like you have ruined mine.”
Prosecuting, Philip Brown described how the tiny animal suffered terrible injuries in the attack.
He said: ‘The cat died from a blunt trauma, which caused her lungs and liver to rupture.
‘There would have been a few minutes of shock and suffering before she died, as well as the distress of being confined in a pillow case.’
Falkingham pictured outside court in February 2011
Falkingham pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary cruelty to an animal and criminal damage.
Sentencing: four months in prison, suspended for 12 months; 150 hours of unpaid work; 12-month supervision order. Banned from keeping animals for five years (expired 2016).
CONVICTED (2011) | hare coursers Eddie Cole, born 20 February 1982, and Matthew James Wenman, born 10 June 1986, both of South Oaks Caravan Park, Dorking Road, Chilworth, Guildford GU4 8NS but with links to Rudgwick, Horsham, West Sussex Matthew Giles, born c. 1979, of Hilltops Caravan Park, Stovolds Hill, Cranleigh GU6 8LE, Tony Frenny Giles, born 22 April 1985 of Twin Oaks, Knowle Lane, Cranleigh GU6 8JW and Nelson Hedges, born c. 1987, of Guildford Road, Normandy, Guildford GU3 2AR
Clockwise from bottom left Eddie Cole, Nelson Hedges, Tony Giles, Matthew Wenman, Matthew Giles
A group of illegal hare coursers who drove 150 miles to let their dogs chase hares in north Suffolk were fined and banned from driving in February 2011.
Eddie Cole, Matthew Giles, Tony Giles, Nelson Hedges and Matthew Wenman were each fined £1,000 and banned from driving for 56 days after they pleaded guilty to hunting a wild mammal with a dog.
Magistrates heard the five defendants had driven up from Surrey and Sussex with five dogs on December 12, 2010, and allowed their dogs to chase hares in a field in Flixton, near Bungay.
At least one hare was killed by the pack of dogs, which included a spring spaniel, a terrier and a seven-month-old puppy.
Colette Griffiths, prosecuting said the five men were found by police stretched out in a line as the dogs chased a hare which was killed.
Police had arrived at the field after a farmer in another field had noticed the men acting suspiciously and alerted officers.
In mitigation the court heard the men were all “extremely remorseful” and recognised “the consequences of their actions”.
Sentencing | fined £1,000 each plus £100 court costs.
Nelson Hedges was jailed for two months for dangerous driving after leading a 100mph police chase.
Officers from Cambridgeshire Police suspected Hedges was hare coursing in his silver Mazda Tribute after members of the public reported him.
The force’s Rural Crime Action Team (RCAT) spotted the vehicle, covered in mud and with dogs in the boot, driving through the village of Iselham, Cambs.
Police parked across the road and signalled Hedges to pull over but he swerved round the car, mounting a pavement, and sped off.
He drove at speeds of nearly 100mph in a 40mph zone and darted across two junctions without stopping.
In a bid to evade police capture, he even drove onto a field causing around £200 worth of damage to crops.
He was arrested after his vehicle came to a halt when police blocked it in another field.
Hedges was also disqualified from driving for 19 months, with an extended retest, after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and criminal damage,
CONVICTED (2011) | wildlife persecutors Mark Anthony Tiffin, born 2 September 1990, of 79 Downland Crescent, Knottingley WF11 0EJ, Ben Scott Lloyd Galsworthy, born 26 February 1978, of 1 Derwent Place, Knottingley WF11 0NL and Neil Burlingham, born c. 1975, of Clifford in Wetherby – caught hunting with dogs.
Mark Tiffen (left) and Ben Galsworthy
The trio, who were represented by Clive Rees, were found guilty of hunting a wild mammal with a dog but walked free from court with a conditional discharge.
All three men were arrested in Gateforth, Selby, in January 2010 after members of Selby Badger Watch reported seeing three men with dogs and shovels close to a badger sett which they were monitoring. The men denied they were hunting a wild mammal with a dog.
Tiffin told the court he had travelled with the other two men to look for rabbits, then to Hambleton Hough to “get rats out of mounds of muck”, before one of the dogs had run away.
The judge told the men that their stories were inconsistent whilst witnesses for the prosecution were credible and concise.
Tiffin, who at the time of his conviction was serving a 12-month prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving, received a two-year conditional discharge.
Galsworthy and Burlingham also received two-year conditional discharges, and were ordered to pay costs of £500 each.
The two dogs, which had been examined by a vet at a cost of £2,092 were confiscated by the police but were later taken from the kennels by persons unknown.
Mark Tiffin was due to appear at Selby Magistrates Court on 24th March 2011 charged with being present at an animal fight. It is alleged that Tiffin used his mobile phone to record images of the animal fight and he faces a number of charges relating to this incident. Unfortunately no further details are available
Source: York Anti-Hunt League
Tiffin reportedly works as a ‘terrierman’ with the combined York and Ainsty South/Badsworth & Bramham Moor Hunt. Members of the York Anti-Hunt League took photographs of Tiffin, whose official role is to mend fences and open gates, during a “cubbing” meet.
Source: York Anti-Hunt League
He was pictured on a quad bike with spades clearly visible on the front of the vehicle. One disturbing image captured Tiffin literally with blood on his hands.
CONVICTED (2011) | Martin Gareth Howells (deceased), born 04/06/1989, from Ely, Cardiff – strangled a puppy to death because she had become a burden
Martin Howells
Martin Gareth Howells twisted the collar of a 12-week-old mastiff-type dog, named Jessie, garrotting her.
A post-mortem examination showed that Jessie’s death was consistent with strangulation. The vet’s report said it would have required sustained pressure to strangle the dog to death and it would have been an extremely painful, stressful demise.
A court heard Howells then buried Jessie’s body in the back garden of the house he shared with then partner Jade Tarr in Crossways Road, Ely.
When an RSPCA inspector called the following day, Howells claimed the dog had tried to attack their two-year-old daughter, Karla.
Howells told the RSPCA inspector: “I’m not going to lie to you, mate. The dog went for my daughter and I had to kill it.”
But Cardiff Magistrates Court heard that Howells had been warning that Jessie was an annoyance.
The RSPCA prosecutor said: “There was no evidence to show the dog was aggressive. In this breed of dog it would have been unusual. There’s evidence to suggest he wanted to get rid of the dog and said so before the incident.”
He added: “He told a neighbour that if the dog hadn’t gone by a certain date, he would kick it out in the street.
“In another conversation he said an ultimatum had been given for the dog to leave. He said he planned on selling the dog. He had enough of the dog. It had become a burden to him.”
Howells was found guilty in his absence of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and failing to protect it from pain and suffering.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms Tarr in a separate incident in October 2010. The court heard he grabbed her in a head lock and punched her to the ribs and face, as their daughter looked on.
Mike Evans, prosecuting the assault, said Howells’ prolonged drug use had changed his temperament towards aggression.
He said:”He would threaten her and threatened to harm the dog. After the dog was killed, she began to take his threats more seriously.”
Sentence: six-month prison sentence; life-ban on keeping animals.
Source: WalesOnline (link removed).
Update August 2020
Martin Howells has died after apparently taking his own life.
We collate data on animal cruelty convictions in the UK
