CONVICTED (2016) | prolific animal abuser John Michael Ginty and partner Nicola Bradley of Dalwood Court, Hemlington, Middlesbrough TS8 9JG – convicted of a catalogue of cruelty offences relating to six dogs and a wild sparrowhawk.
Ginty and Bradley were convicted of seven offences of animal cruelty. The pair were prosecuted after two raids on their home: the first in March 2015 and a second in August 2015.
In the first raid, dogs were found wandering loose, some with injuries.
A number of dogs were in the back yard of the property – three lurchers and a Patterdale dog. There were also two puppies in the house with a nursing bitch.
One lurcher was found with an injury to her leg which Ginty said had been caused when she got caught on a barbed wire fence while they were out “lamping”.
A second lurcher named Spike was found in a closed shed with no water. He had a serious injury to his tail which later had to be amputated due to infection.
Ginty said he did not know how Spike got the cut on his tail but he told the court he cleaned it and put purple spray on it.
He described the dog as his “blue-eyed boy” and said if he thought the cut had been as bad he would have taken it to a vet.
A shih-tzu at the found at the house had to have its eye removed due to an infection. Ginty said he was unaware of the infected eye due to it being covered by long fur.
The garden was described “disgusting” due to large accumlations of faeces on the ground. A fox tail was seen hanging from a kennel
Further charges were laid following another search in August 2015 when the “agitated” sparrowhawk was found.
Prosecuting, John Ellwood, said: “It was jumping from the perch. It was landing in its own faeces but also in dog dirt.
“The bird had no access to water and was basically exposed to the elements.”
Ginty said he found the sparrowhawk with “kids by a beck” so took it into his care.
Mr Ellwood also told the court that before these offences, Ginty had been given a warning by the RSPCA when he was found digging up a badger sett – but on that occasion he told inspectors he had lost a chihuahua dog down the hole.
A probation service spokeswoman told the court that Ginty was on Job Seeker’s Allowance and that there was no evidence he suffered from depression, as he had claimed.
She said he was not likely to be suitable to carry out unpaid work as he had told probation “he could get a sick note like that” – but magistrates still ordered he carry out 180 hours unpaid work.
Ginty, dubbed the “Hemlington Cowboy”, was jailed six weeks for contempt in October 2015 after “riding a horse at speed” through a housing estate.
Ginty was stunned when officials of the county court arrived at his home with a warrant for his arrest citing offences involving riding and tethering his pony.
He had been banned from doing so by a court order issued in June 2015.
A neighbour of Ginty’s said at the time: “He rides his pony around bare-back, he’s like a cowboy but he’s not doing any harm.”
Sentencing:
Bradley – 12-month community order with a 20-day rehabilitation requirement; £500 costs and charges. Ten-year ban but can appeal after five years.
Ginty – 14-week suspended prison sentence; 180 hours of unpaid work. Ten-year ban, but may appeal after five years.
Updates
Just 10 days after the conclusion of the above case, Ginty was handed a 10-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months after he admitted hunting with dogs.
Because the latest crimes pre-dated the offences relating to the dogs and the sparrowhawk, Ginty again avoided jail.
The court heard how Ginty had admitted hunting a wild animal with dogs and another charge of killing a pregnant deer.
Rob Hutchinson, mitigating, said Ginty now accepted full responsibility.
He said Ginty had been badly affected by press attention after he was given a suspended prison sentence earlier this month.
Mr Hutchinson said: “As a result of that conviction he tells me his life is not the same. The press attention has meant that he is effectively banned from the family home by the council. He has effectively seen his relationship break down. He’s suffered a lot.”
At the latest hearing, the court heard Ginty is now on incapacity benefit of £140 a fortnight for “anxiety and depression”.
He was ordered to pay £80 charges and £400 costs, which will be added to his existing court fines and paid back at £5 a week.
A second man, Marcus Owen Batey, admitted trespassing and destroying a rabbit.
Prosecutor Kim Coley said the offences took place in the early hours of March 9, 2015.
Police discovered Batey’s empty Peugeot near the entrance of a private wood on the Neasham estate, near the village of Eryholme, close to Hurworth.
When they returned to the car, police stopped them and found Ginty sitting in the front seat with blood on his hands, clothes and on the handle of a lamp.
Two lurcher dogs were in the back.
When they searched the woods close by, police found a dead roe deer, which was pregnant, bleeding from the neck.
After their arrest, Batey made no comment but Ginty said his dogs had got loose and he was not responsible for the deer’s death.
But forensic analysis of blood stains on Ginty’s jacket proved he had carried a bleeding deer across his right shoulder.
A separate RSPCA investigation recovered a phone from Ginty’s property which had a picture of a lurcher dog next to a deer carcass, but that may have been from a different occasion.
Marcus Batey, born c. 1990, of Cannock Road, Berwick Hills, Middlesbrough, was fined £160 and ordered to pay £270 costs and charges for trespassing at night and destroying a rabbit.
In June 2017 Teesside Live reported that Ginty was set to go on trial after being accused of breaching his ban. While the trial was due to commence in July 2017, the outcome isn’t known.
Bit Of Work they need, they wouldn’t have the energy to go out Lamping or whatever else they have been up to.
Sad Scum, What Sad Lives, These Low Life Live.
They won’t have no luck for what they have done.