CONVICTED (2024) | Rachel Louise Smith, born c. 1992, from Skirpenbeck, near Stamford Bridge, York YO41 – strangled her pet cat to death.

Smith, who is said to be mentally ill, is banned from having any role in owning or caring for animals for the rest of her life after pleading guilty to killing a cat named Chico.

RSPCA prosecutor Phil Brown told the court Smith had strangled the pet because he had urinated on her clothes.

Mr Brown said a mental health team had contacted Humberside Police after Smith told them she had shot the cat.

She later told an RSPCA inspector she had strangled him having “lost her temper” when he damaged her clothes.

Mr Brown said the RSPCA was aware of Smith’s mental illness and had prosecuted her so that she could be banned from having control of animals in future.

Smith’s solicitor Kevin Blount argued that Smith’s mental illness meant she had not dealt with the incident in the way someone who was not mentally ill would have dealt with it.

Mr Blount said she had been given the cat by someone who thought having a pet would help her with her difficulties.

“She soon realised that was not the case,” he said.

Mr Blount said the defendant had “complex psychiatric needs” and that she had a “very complex and tragic history”.

She had tried to arrange for the cat to be rehomed without success.

Smith was already working with health professionals to deal with her mental illness and the probation service could not help her, the court heard.

Her illness meant it was not possible for her to do unpaid work or be put under a curfew.

That left the judge with the choice of giving her a conditional discharge or a prison sentence, said Mr Blount.

District judge Adrian Lower said prison was not appropriate for Smith although he would normally consider jailing someone for killing a cat.

“There is no excuse for killing Chico,” he told Smith. “But I have to take into account your poor mental health as it was then and is now.”

Sentencing | three-year conditional discharge; £200 prosecution costs and £26 statutory surcharge. Banned from keeping, owning or caring for any animal for life but can ask for the ban to be reviewed after 10 years.

York Press