CONVICTED (2024) | serial animal hoarder Diana Curtis, born c. 1958, of Peters Marland, Torrington EX38 8QD – neglected dozens of animals in her care.
Curtis, a notorious animal hoarder well-known to the RSPCA and courts, was given a suspended custodial sentence and laughable five-year ban after horses, dogs, chickens, ducks and a goat were found in squalor at her home.
RSPCA inspectors were joined by police, vets, staff from the Dog’s Trust and officers from Torridge District Council, at the address in July 2022. They found a number of animals, some left without food, water or the vet care they needed.
A stallion, named Mid Morning Monkey, was found with an eye ulcer; checks with vets showed he’d been left with no treatment. Two other horses, named Symphonies Secret and Summer’s Place Jessica, were both found to have untreated dental disease.
Summer’s Place Jessica also had deformed legs and swollen knees. She had an uneven gait and was regularly seen tripping – particularly on her right fore leg. A vet later diagnosed chronic arthritis which had been left untreated.
The stables, which also housed a female goat alongside horses, were dirty with faeces and soiled straw. There was no clean bedding and no hay, food or water available.
Poultry, which was found standing in pens thick with faeces and soiled bedding with dirty water and no food, were also found to have untreated scaly leg. Inside the address, rescuers found more unsuitable living conditions for animals.
RSPCA deputy chief inspector Suzy Hannaby said: “The property was filthy and appeared to have been used as a dog kennel rather than for human habitation, the floors were bare and the only furniture present was for storage.
“There were no chairs or human beds. There was a strong smell of ammonia in the downstairs of the property. There were dog faeces and soiled straw and shavings on the floor, pieces of wooden board, dirty dog beds and two empty crates. There was no food or water available.”
Following an RSPCA prosecution Curtis was convicted of eight offences, some after trial.
Sentencing | 16-week custodial, suspended for 12 months; £10,000 towards costs plus £154 victim surcharge. FIVE-year ban (expires December 2028).
In October 2010 Curtis was given an ASBO due to excessive noise from 100 dogs kept at her property. She pleaded guilty to a noise abatement offence. She was also fined £2,000.
Police officers and animal welfare officers were forced to remove all but six of the dogs from Curtis after she failed to adhere to a court order to do so.
Following Curtis’s conviction, Devon & Cornwall Police Inspector Andy Lilburn said there was “no suggestion of cruelty here whatsoever”, adding that the dogs were “healthy, well-cared for, fed and watered”.
Curtis said she intended appealing the decision but said that “most of the dogs will have been destroyed by the time I raise the money”.
Following the appeal hearing in November 2010, she was ultimately given permission to keep 14 animals.
In December 2011 a further 34 dogs as well as 14 horses were seized from Curtis. After pleading guilty to breaching her ASBO, she was told she could only have a maximum of six dogs.
The RSPCA said at the time they were considering if any animal welfare offences had been committed and whether to prosecute.
In June 2013 Curtis was given a community sentence of 240 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £27,000 in court costs after keeping 33 horses and 34 dogs in appalling conditions.
Officials from the RSPCA found the premises to be covered in faeces and littered with hazards.
The court heard there was no outside grazing available and virtually no food and animals had to eat part of a stinging nettle bush.
Prosecutor Iain O’Donnell said: ‘Thirty-four dogs were removed from the premises. Photographs show the disgusting conditions in which they were living.’
Curtis was only banned from keeping horses and for a mere 12 months.
CONVICTED (2021) | Michael Andrew Hawkswell, born c. 1975, of Haldgarth, Nunwick, Ripon HG4 5EE – a serial animal abuser with a string of convictions for offences including barbaric illegal slaughter.
2021 police mugshot of Michael Hawkswell
Hawkswell’s first known conviction was in or around 2001 when he abandoned a lorry-load of live turkeys on the A1, leaving them to freeze to death. For this offence he was apparently jailed but no details are available.
Two years later, in February 2003, Hawkswell was jailed alongside another man, Isap Lakha of 122 Saville Road, Dewsbury WF12 9LP after the pair were found to be running an illegal slaughter operation at the height of the foot and mouth crisis.
Hawkswell pictured outside court in 2003 along with co-defendant Isap Lakha.
An undercover investigator from the Hillside Animal Sanctuary in East Anglia began investigating the men after a tip-off. Working in conjunction with the RSPCA, the charity obtained secret video footage showing Hawkswell and Lakha killing 10 goats with a blunt knife in a dirty barn in Londonderry, North Yorkshire, causing the animals immense pain and suffering.
RSPCA prosecutor Tony Kelbrick told the court that the video showed the goats were dismembered and butchered “while they appeared to be still alive”.
Still image from horrific video footage which showed Hawkswell and Isap Lakha sawing at animals’ throats with a blunt knife.
He said the animals were being killed in the Halal way but the method used was “inept, clumsy and cruel and caused considerable pain and suffering”.
“It can clearly be seen on the video that a number of cuts were required to sever the arteries and veins and a sawing motion was required as opposed to a clean cut.”
The court heard how the goats were bought at a market in Haswell, Durham, before they were taken to North Yorkshire for slaughter on 14 January 2002.
The hearing was also told how Lakha bought the animal carcasses for about £200 after the slaughter.
He said the meat was to help feed his large extended family which included about 150 people.
However, a 2002 article by now defunct newspaper the Sunday People had already exposed Hawkswell as a “crooked trader” who sold “infected meat to scores of curry shops”. Aside from risking an outbreak of foot and mouth disease and BSE (the human form of mad cow disease), the newspaper described how he made “animals suffer shockingly by letting buyers try their hand at slaughtering in his makeshift abattoir”.
In court, Hawkswell admitted allowing goats he owned to be cruelly ill-treated and also allowing premises to be used as a slaughterhouse without a licence.
His co-defendant, Lakha – a retired slaughterman with 20 years’ experience – pleaded guilty to cruelly ill-treating 10 goats and slaughtering the animals without a licence.
District judge Roy Anderson said the offences were so serious he had no option but to jail the men.
He told the pair the botched operation was “inept, callous, squalid and cruel”.
Hawkswell received a four-month prison sentence while Lakha was jailed for two months. Both were banned from keeping animals for 10 years (ban expired 2013).
Writing about their investigation, Hillside Sanctuary told how Michael Hawkswell had boasted to their covert investigator how he could supply cows, lambs, goats, deer, pigeons and even peacocks. He gloated that most of the animals were stolen from farms late at night.
Hawkswell had also bragged about breeding cockerels for fighting.
Happily, Hillside were able to rescue five nanny goats (pictured) from a horrible death and took them into the care of the sanctuary.
In 2010 Hawkswell was banned from keeping animals for ten years and jailed for six months after livestock was found in squalid conditions. No further details of this conviction are available.
In December 2013 Hawkswell was back in court after repeatedly breaching his animal banning order.
The court heard how trading standards officers visited premises in Thorpe Underwood, between York and Boroughbridge and discovered that Hawkswell had been moving sheep.
Paperwork found in a stolen trailer revealed he had been to a slaughterhouse in Spennymoor.
Hawkswell admitted handling stolen goods and breaching an animal banning order, and was given a suspended prison sentence.
Judge Les Spittle described his actions as “a blatant disregard” for court orders, and also ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work for the community.
Stuart Young, mitigating, said his client had “struggled to do what the courts tell him” adding that he had “shown poor problem-solving techniques.”
Hawkswell pictured in 2017
In February 2017 Hawkswell was jailed for six months after breaching a court order to protect animals from him. His latest conviction came after his vehicle was stopped by North Yorkshire Police and found to contain cardboard boxes holding 14 live chickens and a duck. A few months later Hawkswell was stopped again by road traffic police and this time officers found a sheep, two hens, two pigeons and four dead turkeys.
On both occasions Hawkswell was arrested and subsequently charged.
Sergeant Kevin Kelly, from North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Taskforce, said that Hawkswell was “a danger to animals”.
In May 2021 Hawkswell, still disqualified from keeping or owning animals, was charged with possessing 76 birds and a string of other offences.
They included buying and transporting two goats, possessing seven sheep in his trailer, possessing a duck, unloading poultry from a vehicle into sale pens at Highgate auctions in Rotherham and buying and selling poultry.
In September 2021 Hawkswell was jailed for a total of 32 weeks after pleading guilty to all charges.
The court also disqualified Hawkswell from owning or keeping goats, poultry, birds and sheep for a period of 10 years under the Animal Welfare Act.
Hawkswell was also disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 16 months.
Speaking after the sentencing, PC Mark Atkinson, of North Yorkshire Police’s rural task force, said:
“Michael Hawkswell knew full well that he wasn’t allowed to have anything to do with animals – with a court order in place to protect them from suffering at his hands.
“However, he has repeatedly shown a blatant disregard for that court order, and persistently breached it on a number of occasions.
“Members of the farming community were aware of Hawkswell’s illegal activity, and came forward with crucial information, allowing us to arrest him and put him before the court. I would like to thank everyone who has spoken to the police in relation to Hawkswell’s activities – your assistance has been so vital and helped our team to put the strongest case together.”
North Yorkshire Police said it would now distribute posters highlighting Hawkswell’s banning order at livestock marts and other rural businesses.
Sentencing (September 2021 conviction): 32 weeks in jail. Disqualified from having anything to do with poultry, goats, sheep or birds for ten years (expires September 2031).
CONVICTED (2016) | serial offenders Grace Banks (aka Leah Grace Rogers) and Julian King (aka Alec Paul Rogers), both of Reed Street, Gorton, Manchester M18 8JT, and Peter Jones (aka Aneirin Joseph Sculley) of Graymarsh Drive, Poynton, Stockport SK12 1YW – imported and sold severely ill puppies to unsuspecting families.
Julian King, whose birth name was Alec Paul Rogers, and his sister Grace Banks born Leah Grace Rogers
An investigation in Manchester led to the convictions in October 2015 of three people who made £35,000 a week importing sick and dying puppies from Ireland and selling them on to heartbroken animal lovers.
The trio created a callous facade of a reputable pedigree puppy company selling healthy and happy dogs, but the reality was a short life of pain, suffering and disease for the animals.
Banks with Peter ‘Nye’ Jones, a childhood friend of her brother
RSPCA investigators uncovered how Banks, King and Jones:
Received weekly deliveries of puppies imported via ferries from the Republic of Ireland;
Kept puppies at a “holding” address at Seventeen Windows, a large rented property in Marple Road, Stockport, which had purpose-built kennels at the rear, before selling them via a network of rented residential properties;
Used a variety of different names;
Lied to buyers, telling them the puppies for sale had been bred in a homely, family environment and were the first litter;
Set up their own company through which they provided buyers with glossy “Kennel Registration” folders containing false paperwork;
Used more than 30 mobile telephones, each one for selling specific breeds of puppy, to avoid confusion when contacted by buyers.
When the RSPCA and Greater Manchester Police raided Seventeen Windows as part of Operation Pagan aimed at shutting down the sale of dogs over the internet, they were confronted with the shocking truth of the crooked gang’s criminal operation.
The bodies of four Yorkshire terrier puppies were found at one of the addresses. One had been dumped in a wheelie bin, two in a plastic bucket in the footwell of a car on the driveway and one was with a live puppy in a pen.
Evidence given by vet Dr David Martin during King’s trial suggested these puppies had died from starvation over a prolonged period of time.
At least six large plastic buckets filled with live puppies were discovered.
In total inspectors discovered 87 live puppies, including Yorkshire terriers, huskies, West Highland terriers, pomeranians, Labradors, beagles, shih tzus, French bulldogs, cockapoos and more. The average advertised price for these puppies at the time was approximately £600 each.
All of the animals were suffering from health problems including lice, pneumonia, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis and bloody stools. Some had parvovirus and distemper. No veterinary treatment had been sought for any of the puppies.
Full details of the ghastly trio and their convictions are as follows:
Grace Banks (23/09/1986), real name Leah Grace Rogers. A former prostitute, she was also commonly know as Lilly Cooper. Her other aliases included Holly Saxon and Sarah Connor. She was a director of Lilly’s Puppy Boutique Ltd which traded from a rented residential property at Seventeen Windows, Marple Road, Stockport.
For months, Banks had played the part of a caring woman with a one-off litter – even giving away cosy blankets with the puppies so they could feel ‘safe’.
In reality, the tiny animals were riddled with contagious diseases, kept in pens, advertised using fake images downloaded from Google and other websites – and sold for up to £600.
Buyers all described Banks’ white Mercedes, high definition eyebrows, long black hair and pouty lips.
Banks admitted offences of failing to protect more than 1,200 puppies. She was sentenced to five months in jail and ordered to pay £4,500 in costs.
In May 2016 Banks was jailed for a further nine months after it was discovered that she had continued to sell poorly puppies while awaiting sentencing for her original conviction.
King was found guilty of failing to protect 835 puppies from pain, suffering and disease. He was sentenced to five months in jail and ordered to pay £2,500 in costs
Peter Jones (30/06/1983) whose birth name was Aneirin Joseph Sculley, has used aliases George Cooper, Marco Emme and Michael Emme and is sometimes known by the nickname ‘Nye’. We understand that he may since have changed his name to Arnie Swartz. He is a former director of King’s ‘pedigree registration’ company Kennel Registration Ltd. He has a brother named Keir Sculley and his mother’s name is Diane Sculley.
Jones was found guilty of failing to protect 835 puppies from pain, suffering and disease. He was given six months in jail and ordered to pay £2,100 in costs.
All three were banned from keeping animals for life.
The RSPCA rehomed the puppies that were seized during the investigation, after providing the required treatment and care to those which were sick.
Peter Jones and Julian King were previously banned from keeping animals for 10 years following a successful RSPCA prosecution in April 2010. Jones was convicted in the name Michael Emme and King in his birth name of Alec Paul Rogers.
Julian King photographed during a previous court appearance in 2010
The charges related to six ten-week-old Staffy-type puppies that had been left to lie in their own filth, unfed and in the dark, for days on end in the middle of winter.
Only three of the starving puppies survived
Just three of the puppies survived after RSPCA inspectors found them in a freezing, pitch-black outhouse, with their ribs, spine and pelvic bones protruding from their bodies.
The pups were found on a stone floor, whimpering and huddled together to keep warm. They were extremely underweight and only had one small, dirty plastic bed between them – in the middle of November.
There was an “overwhelming smell of urine” when inspectors approached the outhouse, on Braddon Road, Woodley. The pups had worms and had been licking their matted fur in an attempt to groom themselves.
King had left the pups in the care of Jones while he went on holiday for a week, in what a vet later described as “atrocious conditions”.
Jones kept them in his outhouse, but claimed that he had only left the pups alone for 36 hours at the most while he went on holiday to Blackpool – although he admitted the conditions were “disgusting” and the remaining pups were lucky to be alive.
Magistrates heard that Jones had given the RSPCA and the courts a series of false names and addresses, and that he had also breached his bail conditions.
The pair were given a community sentence and banned from keeping animals for 10 years.
Just one year later, in January 2011 the pair were back in court having breached their disqualification order.
This followed an RSPCA raid on Nook Farm in Tyldesley, Manchester where 33 puppies in poor health were seized. The pups, which included nine Yorkshire terriers, five West Highland white terriers, five King Charles cavaliers, five labradors, seven Pomeranians and two King Charles spaniels, had intestinal disease caused by infection or parasites and some had respiratory infections.
The farm’s owner, William Hartley, had rented buildings to Jones and King. Hartley was also prosecuted for animal cruelty but ultimately cleared. The court accepted his claim that he had prepared for the puppies’ arrival by putting out food, water and heating lamps but hadn’t seen them prior to the raid.
Numerous unrelated people have contacted us to advise that Alec Rogers/Julian King has changed his name again, this time to Harry Pony. Although not listed on Companies House as a company director, Harry Pony (who may or may not be Julian King) has a senior role within Lenken Ltd t/a Smartbreeder, – a provider of training and equipment for would-be dog breeders.
This is depraved Colin Sherlock formerly of Third Avenue, Dawlish, and now living in Queensway, Newton Abbot. In 2010 self-confessed boozer and doper Sherlock and twisted teenage accomplices Alex Archer and Jamie Jones from Teignmouth subjected a helpless cat to mental and physical torture.
Sickening video footage showed Sherlock being goaded by Archer and Jones, as he put the cat, Roxy, into a series of appliances, beginning with a microwave oven, then a tumble dryer and finally a freezer. The terrified cat was then submerged in a bowl of dishwater.
The entire horrific incident was filmed on a mobile phone by one of the teenagers. That footage was shared with a number of others and was eventually reported to the police. Sherlock was recognised by the distinctive crescent-shaped tattoo on the left-hand side of his face and a prosecution followed.
In November 2010 Sherlock was sentenced to 126 days in jail and barred from owning any animals for ten years.
Archer and Jones were given 12-month rehabilitation orders including supervision orders. They also had to take part in the ‘make amends project’ and carry out work to benefit the RSPCA
Despite her ordeal at the hands of the three brain-dead thugs, Roxy survived and was surrendered to the RSPCA. We understand that she was so traumatised she could not be made available for rehoming for several months.
CONVICTED (2010) | badger baiters Shaun Chapman, born 12/08/1981, of Rishworth Close, Bransholme, Hull HU7 5BG, Garry Arthur Douglas, born 21/07/1970, most recent known address Railway Cottages, Newport Road, Great Bridgeford ST18 9PR, and Terry Murray, born 1962 but now deceased, from Ottringham
L-R Shaun Chapman, Terry Murray, Garry Douglas
Shaun Chapman, Garry Douglas and Terry Murray were found guilty of a charge of interfering with a badger sett under section 3 of the Protection of Badgers’ Act 1992 following a one-day a trial at Hull Magistrates’ Court in September 2010.
The vile trio had denied disturbing the sett at Sunk Island, East Yorkshire, and claimed they were “bushing” for foxes and rabbits.
They were armed with two shovels, three terriers and an electronic dog collar locator when caught by Humberside Police.
2022 image of badger baiter Shaun Chapman
Chapman said his dog, a black Patterdale terrier, had gone into one of the holes of the sett after a fox.
He said he used a digital locator to follow his dog and the men used two spades to dig above the sett.
Douglas had his English bull terrier with him when arrested by the police. He said he had gone to East Yorkshire on invitation having met Chapman at a Welsh game fair. He said he didn’t go anywhere without his dog.
“I went out bushing to bolt a few foxes and rabbits,” said Douglas. “I didn’t dig.” Asked why not he laughed: “I’m too lazy.”
Douglas threw one of the spades away before the men left the area.
Humberside Police helicopter arrived at the scene and officers on the ground arrested the three defendants.
Their activities were captured on the force helicopter’s camera.
District Judge Frederick Rutherford told the men: “I found you approached a live sett knowing at the time it to be active.
“Your intention was to bait or kill animals by digging out the sett with the sole purpose of causing terror to a protected species.
“You had intended to cause extreme cruelty to the animals in this sett.”
The men were defended by Clive Rees.
Sentencing: 12-week suspended jail sentences; 200 hours of unpaid work; £2,000 each in costs.
CONVICTED (2010) | Julie Carter, born 9 March 1970, of 22 Herald Way, Bicester OX26 4SF – drowned eight of her pet cats one by one in a baby bath at her home.
Over a week, mother-of-one Julie Carter subjected each of the fully grown cats, aged between one and three, to a painful death by holding them under water.
She admitted causing unnecessary suffering by killing the animals between May 25 and June 7, 2010.
The court heard a member of staff at Charter Community Housing visited the house and was struck by the smell of cat urine.
Carter was told she would have to remove some of her 11 cats and clean up the house.
But when RSPCA inspector Doug Davidson went to the premises only three cats were left. Carter later admitted she had killed the other eight.
Defending, Paul Bevan said Carter knew what she had done, but had a “limited degree of understanding”.
He said she had received threats over the case.
Sentencing | 12 weeks in jail. Lifetime ban on all animals.
CONVICTED (2010) | Daphne Fairclough, born c. 1968, and son Shaun Malcolm Terence Fairclough, born 11 November 1987, both of 117 Lanchester Avenue, Gateshead NE9 7AN – starved their pet goat so badly the animal had to be put to sleep
Daphne and Shaun Fairclough pictured outside court
A pet goat belonging to mother and son Daphne and Shaun Fairclough was left to starve in January 2010 – the coldest winter for 30 years.
As Arctic conditions brought misery to Britain, the goat was left without food or water on West Farm, at Whickham Highway, in Gateshead.
A woman visiting her horse in a nearby field heard the dying animal’s cries and alerted the RSPCA.
But it was too late to save the goat, who had to be put down, Gateshead.
The Faircloughs admitted animal cruelty charges.
Clive McKeag, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said the animal was found collapsed in a stable on a urine-covered concrete floor with her bones protruding.
An examination suggested she had been starved for a minimum of a week but more likely over a month.
“An RSPCA inspector said the animal had been living in conditions that were unacceptable,” said Mr McKeag.
Shaun Fairclough, who owned the goat, had asked his mother to go and see her but accepts he didn’t look after her properly.
Tom Iceton, defending, said both mother and son regret what happened. “Mrs Fairclough finds this very distressing and she is very remorseful,” he said.
“The goat belonged to Shaun and it was his responsibility to make sure it was properly cared for and looked after. Work shifts caused him some problems, his mother did the best she could but he should have made arrangements.”
Sentencing: both were given a 12-month supervised community order. The mother was ordered to complete 40 hours of unpaid work. She was banned from keeping animals, except cats and dogs, until 2015.
Her son was told complete 200 hours of unpaid work and banned from keeping or caring for any animal for 10 years (expired October 2020). He had to pay £250 costs.
Shaun Fairclough was convicted of further animal cruelty charges in relation to chickens he kept on an allotment. He was also found to have breached his existing ban on owning animals which only ended in October 2020.
Serial animal abuser Shaun Fairclough
The RSPCA was contacted in September 2019 with concerns for the welfare of a number of birds at an allotment in Haltwhistle. When rescuers arrived at the premises they discovered the bodies of five dead birds.
RSPCA Inspector Kirsty Keogh-Laws said: “When I arrived at the allotment I was told that a large number of birds had previously been kept there, and sadly I found the bodies of five dead chickens among the pens, that had been left to rot.
“I made enquiries to find out who was keeping the birds, which took some time, but I discovered that the birds were under the care of Shaun Fairclough which was a breach of an existing disqualification order.”
Fairclough pleaded guilty to having 20 chickens and six ducks including five silkie type chickens, while being disqualified from owning animals.
Conditions in which the bodies of the dead chickens were discovered
The court heard that he mistakenly thought his previous disqualification order had ended and suggested his friends were helping him to look after the chickens.
Fairclough was sentenced to an 18 month community order with 26 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days and 150 hours of unpaid work. He was ordered to pay costs of £400 and a victim surcharge of £85 which is to be deducted at source.
A disqualification order was granted for a period of five years.
CONVICTED (2010) | Mary Elizabeth Bale, born 15/06/1965, of St Michaels Road, Coventry CV2 4EJ – recorded on video stroking a four-year-old tabby cat named Lola before picking her up by the scruff of her neck and dropping her into a wheelie bin.
Twisted bank worker Mary Bale from Coventry dumped Lola the cat in a wheelie bin. Fortunately Lola was rescued or could have been crushed.
The RSPCA charged Mary Bale after CCTV cameras showed her throwing four-year-old Lola into a bin outside her owners’ home in Coventry.
The former bank worker pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a cat. A charge of not providing the cat with a suitable environment was dropped.
Bale’s actions sparked outrage when Lola’s owner Darryl Mann posted the footage on the internet.
He found Lola after she had been in the bin for 15 hours, then checked his security camera video to see what had happened.
Within hours, angry messages had been posted online and later a Facebook page reportedly calling for Bale’s death, was removed.
District judge Caroline Goulborn said the potential for harm to the cat had been “substantial” but the reality was she had not been hurt.
“The media interest in this case has resulted in you being vilified in some quarters and I have taken that into account,” she said.
Coventry Magistrates Court also heard that Bale’s elderly father had been gravely ill at the time and that he had since died.
“I accept you were in a stressful situation at the time, but that’s no excuse for what you did,” Judge Goulborn said.
Bale’s solicitor David Murray said his client could offer no explanation for her actions.
He added that she was suffering from anxiety and depression and had resigned from her job after 27 years.
Speaking after the case, RSPCA inspector Nicky Foster said the costs order and the ban would act as a deterrent to others.
“She (Bale) said in court that she doesn’t know why she has done it, so she has no excuse.”
Ms Foster said Lola had been extremely lucky to come out unharmed.
Sentence: total of £1400 fines, costs and charges. Banned from keeping or owning animals for five years (expired October 2015).
CONVICTED (2010) | Christopher Gallier, born 26 February 1987, of Canal Street, Oldham OL9 7JR – blasted his pet dog in a shooting spree in his own home
In March 2010 a Sharpei-type dog named Roxy was deliberately shot in the neck with an airgun by her owner Christopher Gallier.
Gallier initially told police that the dog had been injured by glass in his backyard before claiming instead that a pellet had ricocheted and hit Roxy. In the end he admitted that he had deliberately targeted the dog during a shooting spree inside his home.
X-rays revealed a pellet ledged deep in Roxy’s neck muscles – an injury that would have caused her sustained pain over a period of days.
Gallier pleaded guilty to shooting the dog, failing to get her veterinary treatment and failing to keep her and a second dog in a hygienic and hazard free environment.
Roxy survived after an operation and she and another dog were signed over to the RSPCA in August 2010.
Sentencing: Gallier was given a two-month prison sentence, suspended for one year and banned from keeping animals for life.
#MostEvil | Paul Hinton, born 07/11/1975, as at 2018 of Borough Road, Darlington DL1 1SG – killed a stray dog by taping up his muzzle then subjecting him to a violent beating
Hinton tied up the mongrel before subjecting him to a prolonged beating, during which he kicked him in the head, spine, tail, leg and abdomen. He also taped the dog’s muzzle shut. The dog died of impaired breathing and a heart attack as a result of traumatic injury.
Despite the pre-meditated and sustained nature of Hinton’s violent attack on the defenceless animal, a charge of torture was withdrawn.
Hinton alleged that he bound the dog’s muzzle to protect his children, claiming that one of them had been bitten.
Speaking after the case, RSPCA inspector Garry Palmer said: “What this dog went through is the stuff of nightmares. Thinking about that has caused many a sleepless night for me.
“The premeditated nature of what happened here makes it one of the most shocking cases I have ever dealt with. It was horrific.”
Sentencing: 10-week prison sentence. Life ban on keeping animals.
