#MostEvil | Andrew William Beech, born 31 May 1986, of 64a Kingsfield Road, Biddulph ST8 6DR – subjected his pet dog to repeated violent attacks over several months, finally killing her

Neighbours of Andrew Beech had witnessed him screaming and swearing at his blue Staffordshire bull terrier, Millie, many times in the months leading up to her violent death on 19 August 2019.

One witness described seeing Beech throw Millie’s bed into the communal yard and yelling at her aggressively. He then kicked her hard, causing her to cry out. The witness tried to confront him but Beech disappeared inside his flat before she could do so.

On the evening of Millie’s death horrified neighbours heard Beech yelling “you shit all over the flat” followed by sounds of a dog in severe distress, crying and screaming.

On August 21, Beech wrote the following on Facebook: “my Millie moo died, completely shocked, RIP”.

Rumours emerged on social media that Beech had killed Millie and one local animal lover, Nicola, decided to go to his house to confront him. Beech told Nicola that Millie had died from natural causes and said he had buried her body in local woods. However, Nicola had noticed bloodstains on the walls of his hallway and was unconvinced by his lies. She went through his bins and was horrified to discover remnants of a blood-soaked dog bed.

Police were called but were reluctant to investigate so Nicola, determined to get justice for Millie, decided to take matters into her own hands.

She posted an appeal for information on Facebook and was soon contacted by someone who said they would show her where Beech had buried Millie’s body – actually in a small plot in the car park to the rear of his flat.

Nicola took a shovel and found Millie’s battered body in a cardboard box. She was wrapped in what remained of her dog bed.

The box contained a message that said “Millie, I’m going to miss you every day” with dog biscuits, and a deflated ball.

Nicola contacted the RSPCA who collected Millie’s remains and took her to a vet for examination. There it was discovered that she had died from a blunt trauma. She had several other traumatic injuries including a punctured liver and lung, a broken hip and internal bleeding. Almost every rib was broken.

Some injuries were older and had been inflicted on her months earlier, proving that this attack had not been a one-off.

The RSPCA prosecuted Beech but he denied the charges and continued to scream about his innocence to his friends and family and publicly on Facebook.

One local animal lover took to social media to write about the case:

PUPPY KILLER. This is Andrew Beech of Biddulph. It would be easy to Hate such a wicked coward but apparently his parents are even worse – banned from their home town of Biddulph. He only had the puppy for 6 months and was heard shouting and hitting it many times, but nobody said anything until HE put it on Facebook pretending it had died and he was devastated. But the puppy was located and DUG UP for a post-mortem ! They don’t come much lower than him, he has No Remorse – but shows how such bad rotten parenting Ruins lives. He’s been Violent all his life. His whole family are the same.

Source: Facebook

Faced with overwhelming evidence against him, Beech eventually pleaded guilty to two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal as well as harassing an ex-partner.

The court heard Beechhad lost his job at a builders’ merchant following the social media backlash in the wake of Millie’s death.

Beech’s lawyer, Peter Howland of Turnocks Defence Solicitors, told the court that his client became frustrated with Millie following a change in his working hours causing him to be away most of the day and that “he kicked her because of her behaviour”.

Speaking about the fatal attack Howland said that his client “kicked the dog a number of times and, as a result of that, it died within a matter of minutes. He was shocked and didn’t know what to do.”

Howland claimed that Beech had been in the Army and had served in Basra “which has had an effect on his mental health.”

This cut little ice with the judge who told Beech: “You could not cope with owning the dog but you made excuses – it would not have taken a genius to give the dog to the RSPCA.

“Instead you subjected the dog to cruelty on a regular basis. This was not a one-off – and then you kicked this dog to death.”

Sentencing | jailed for 24 weeks. Banned indefinitely from keeping animals.

Stoke Sentinel