CONVICTED (2021) | Patrick Medford, born c. 1940, of 9 Yew Tree Close, Welling DA16 3BY – shot a cat with an air rifle, killing her
Evil pensioner Patrick Medford shot his neighbour’s cat with an air rifle he used for shooting pigeons.
Medford admitted shooting his neighbour’s cat, Ethel, in the abdomen with an air rifle. The pellet was embedded in Ethel’s intestines and despite emergency surgery to save her, she sadly died.
RSPCA Inspector Harriet Daliday was contacted by Ethel’s owner, who told her she had received a series of threatening emails from Medford about the cat being in his garden. The neighbour said that Medford had an air rifle which he used to shoot pigeons.
Inspector Daliday visited Medford at his address and was shown the rifle in the upstairs rear bedroom overlooking the garden. The garden also had multiple cat scarers and an automatic sprinkler system used to scare off cats and foxes.
A police ballistics report proved that the pellet extracted from Ethel matched Medford’s rifle.
The court heard vet reports stating Ethel was in severe shock and severe abdominal pain when they examined her just two hours after she came home vomiting and clearly in pain.
The report stated: “She could not walk and had a very low heart rate. An X-ray was taken of her abdomen and this revealed a shotgun pellet clearly visible in her abdomen. We also found a fresh puncture wound on her abdomen consistent with a recent puncture from a pellet. Ethel was stabilized overnight and had exploratory abdominal surgery the following day.
“During this surgery four puncture wounds were found in her intestines where the pellet had penetrated. Two punctures were in her small intestine and two in her colon. Ethel recovered from the surgery however succumbed to sepsis related complications post op and died despite all our best efforts.”
Speaking after the prosecution, Inspector Daliday added: “This is a tragic case in which a cat was callously shot and sadly died. This would have caused poor Ethel suffering and also caused a lot of heartbreak for her owner who lost her much-loved pet.
“Unfortunately, air rifle attacks are not as rare as we would like. The injuries caused by such attacks are horrific and often fatal as was the case with poor Ethel.”
Sentencing: 16 weeks in custody, suspended for two years. Ordered to pay £600 in costs as well as £2,036 in compensation to Ethel’s owner. Disqualified from keeping all animals indefinitely.
CONVICTED (2020) | traveller Jason Price, born c. 1997, of Burnaby Road, Stoke on Trent ST6 – shot and killed eight pheasants with an air rifle on private land
The owner was alerted to the crime after hearing gunshots and then spotting Price loading something into the back of his van.
North Staffordshire Justice Centre heard police later found the 22-year-old with eight dead pheasants in his vehicle.
Prosecutor Sue Hayers said: “The injured party was at home at 9pm on January 14 when he heard what he thought sounded like silenced rifle shots. He saw a light shine in the trees and formed the opinion someone was outside.
“He saw a van parked up the road and saw someone throw something into the rear of the van. The person was holding a rifle. The vehicle pulled away.
“Police later located the van and the defendant. They recovered an air rifle, pellets and eight pheasants from the vehicle.”
When he was arrested, Price claimed he did not know the Whitmore land was private and said he intended to eat the birds.
The court heard the landowner, the Cavanagh-Mainwairing family, rears pheasants to be used in licensed shoots held on the estate, and the theft left them £320 out of pocket.
Price pleaded guilty to theft and a charge of trespassing at night with an air rifle to destroy game.
The offences put him in breach of a conditional discharge he received for another theft, when he was collecting scrap metal and took property that the owner had not agreed he could have.
Mohammed Fiaz, mitigating, said: “He has written a letter of apology for his behaviour. The reason Mr Price took the pheasants was for his own consumption. He wasn’t going to sell them on. He purchased the rifle legitimately.
“He was working as a labourer but unfortunately he lost that job a couple of weeks ago.”
Sentencing: 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work; ordered to pay £320 to the victim. He must also pay a £120 fine for breaching the conditional discharge.
CONVICTED (2019) | Simon James Hancock, born 20 April 1982, of Terrier Close, Hedge End, Southampton SO30 2ND – shot a dog in the head four times with an air rifle before dumping him in a wooded area and leaving him for dead.
The court was told how on July 11, 2018, Hancock attempted to destroy the 15-month-old dog, known as Jet, who belonged to his former partner.
After shooting Jet four times with an air rifle, Hancock dumped him in bushes close to his home in Hedge End, where he suffered, alone, for five days.
Jet experienced unimaginable suffering as he spent five days collapsed in woodland while seriously wounded
When the dog was was finally discovered, he had collapsed and was infested with thousands of fly eggs around the pellet holes.
Jet’s microchip details identified Hancock’s former partner as the owner, and investigations by the animal charity began.
An air rifle found in Hancock’s home was examined by forensics and it was accepted that it was the weapon used to shoot Jet, although Hancock claimed it had been dumped on his doorstep the same morning as the search warrant.
Jet’s recovery was slow and he has been left with impaired hearing and vision thanks to the cruelty of Simon Hancock
He claimed a friend named Paul, whom he said he has since been unable to trace and didn’t know his surname, was given to Jet after it is claimed the young terrier bit his ex-partner’s daughter.
Hancock’s version of events was not believed by the court and in May 2019 he was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
RSPCA Inspector Graham Hammond said: “Jet was treated in a shockingly brutal manner, being shot in the head four times, then dumped while still alive but horrendously injured.
“You cannot begin to imagine the suffering this dog went through during the five days he was left alone and injured.
“Thankfully he has survived and has made a very good recovery.
“He’s such a happy, friendly dog who loves everyone he meets. It’s amazing to see him thriving in his new home.
“More than £5,000 was spent on veterinary care.
“He was very touch-and-go at times and he lost hearing in one ear because an ear canal had to be removed. His vision has also been affected.”
Sentencing | 200 hours of community service; £1,600 in costs. Banned from keeping animals for just 10 years (expires June 2029).
CONVICTED (2019) | career criminal and gang member Joshua Wanless, born c. 1990, of Pankhurst Road, Walton-on-Thames KT12 – encouraged a dog to kill a ferret for his own sadistic enjoyment.
Twisted Josh Wanless derived pleasure from seeing helpless animals being killed
Joshua Wanless, who has previous convictions for violence, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, a ferret, by feeding it to a dog and causing it to die, and causing unnecessary suffering to a dog by encouraging the dog to attack a ferret.
On January 30, 2019, officers were called to Apple Court Green in Walton after a report that Wanless had forced a dog into a cage with a ferret to kill it.
Officers arrived as Wanless drove into an adjacent road, where they searched his car. In the boot they found a box with a live ferret, a cage covered in blood and a dog with blood on its nose. On the green they also found the ferret that had been killed by the dog minutes beforehand.
Gangsta type Josh Wanless is well known to Surrey Police
Wildlife & Rural Crime Co-ordinator PC Hollie Iribar who investigated the case alongside PC Josh Parry, said: “This is an abhorrent crime which involved Joshua Wanless antagonising a dog to kill a ferret for no other reason than his own enjoyment.
“He denied the offences at the time and told officers at the scene that the ferret had escaped from its box and been killed by accident, but subsequent investigation of his mobile phone revealed text messages stating his cruel intention beforehand.
“Using dogs to commit crimes in this way is disgusting. We know that crimes such as organised dog fighting are linked to serious criminal networks where it is sadly viewed as a sport. Bringing offenders to justice for such barbaric activity is just another way we can disrupt organised criminals from committing other kinds of serious crime.”
Wanless, whom Walton locals say has killed a dog and may also be responsible for air rifle attacks on cats in the area, also pleaded guilty to two breaches of his Criminal Behaviour Order. The breaches are that he caused alarm or distress to another member of the public and entered an area he was not allowed in.
Sentencing | 16-week custodial sentence, suspended for two years; 180 hours of unpaid work; costs and charges totalling £200. Banned from owning or keeping all animals for two years (expired 2021).
CONVICTED (2018) | Peter Geoffrey Shaw, born 19/10/1963, of Dane Bank Road, Northwich CW9 5PL – shot his neighbour’s pet cat with an air rifle causing a fatal injury.
Roxy suffered a perforated bowel after being shot by cruel Peter Shaw and had to be put to sleep
Peter Geoffrey Shaw, who runs a company called Shaws Fencing Ltd, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
The court heard how the cat, named Roxy, who belonged to Shaw’s neighbours, suffered after being shot and was subsequently put to sleep after sustaining a perforated bowel from the pellet.
Roxy’s owner, Isobel Cooper, contacted the RSCPA following the incident.
An investigation was then launched by the animal welfare charity.
RSPCA inspector Cara Challinor explained how Roxy had eaten tea in the kitchen and gone outside into the garden on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.
She then jumped onto the fence – which was between her own and Shaw’s gardens.
Isobel then heard a bang and ran outside.
Inspector Challinor said: “She saw Roxy had fallen off the fence, she was gasping for breath, her tail was all puffed up and she was crying.
“Isobel looked over the fence into Shaw’s garden and saw him going back inside the house.”
After rushing the beloved pet to the vets, an x-ray revealed that there was a pellet inside her.
Initially the vets thought they would be able to remove the pellet, however Roxy’s condition deteriorated and it was found that the pellet had perforated her bowel.
Sadly Roxy had to be put to sleep.
After the RSPCA and police were called, an airgun was seized from Shaw’s house.
Isobel said: “Roxy was only six. She was very timid and very loving. She stayed in our garden all the time and she loved to walk around the perimeter of the garden guarding it.
“I miss her, it’s been really difficult and the children were really upset. She was a perfectly healthy cat and very loyal.”
Sentence: 18-week custodial sentence suspended for 18 months; 200 hours of unpaid work; ordered to pay £2,347 costs. 10-year-ban on keeping animals.
CONVICTED (2018) | Edward Mosley, born 22 January 1999, of St Annes Road, Newquay TR7 2SA – shot and killed two nesting seagulls with an air rifle
Edward Mosley shot and killed nesting seagulls with an air rifle.
Mosley admitted shooting the two nesting herring gulls.
The RSPCA described the attack as “callous” and urged people to “be tolerant of the wildlife around them”.
RSPCA inspector Paul Kempson, who investigated the gull attacks for the charity, said: “Gulls have a particularly tough time of it and every year we see callous attacks like this, particularly in coastal areas.”
“We urge people to be tolerant of the wildlife living around them, and remember they are protected under law,” he said.
Gulls and their nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is illegal to intentionally kill, take or injure wild birds.
Sentencing | curfew, court costs of £385, weapon destroyed.
CONVICTED (2018) | Jobi Lee Varey, born c. 1991, of Blascomay Square, Colne BB8 0SG – shot two ducks dead with an air rifle.
Traveller Jobi Lee Varey, brother of notorious cat killer and wildlife persecutor Josh ‘Percy’ Varey, was caught in the Cotton Tree Lane area of Colne where officers saw him going into the river to retrieve a dead bird. Varey, who had an air rifle, put the duck next to another dead bird on the grass.
Magistrates were told how Varey struck without permission and out of the ” duck shooting season”.
The ground worker said he often went to the area to shoot birds to feed his bird of prey.
Jobi Lee Varey (right) with cat and wildlife-killing brother Josh Varey (aka Percy Varey)
Varey’s lawyer told the court his client had gone to shoot rabbits, which he had done previously, with permission. He claimed Varey had acted out of ignorance rather than committing an intentional offence.
Varey admitted killing a wild bird – a Manky Mallard and a Mandarin duck, on April 17, 2018.
He was fined £200, with £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
CONVICTED (2017) | self-styled ‘cat hunter’ Christopher Storer Boswell, born c. 1973, of Eden Street, Cambridge CB1 1EL – shot a Siamese kitten with an air rifle
Neighbours of ‘cat hunter’ Christopher Boswell expressed concern that he may be responsible for the disappearance of up to 20 cats in the area
Christopher Boswell pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, June 20, 2017.
But Boswell appealed his sentence straight after the hearing, with an appeal then held at Cambridge Crown Court on July 20, 2017.
It was reported how Pia the white Siamese kitten, worth about £450, belonged to Cambridge resident Caroline King.
Ms King noticed her cat was missing from her garden about 7.20pm on April 7, 2017, and when she went round to ask Boswell about her missing cat, he told her he had been hunting cats since he was 17.
Boswell had told her: “I don’t like cats, I hate them. They are a menace to wildlife and birds.”
Ms King asked if Boswell was joking but he replied: “No, I’ve shot it twice – once in the head, once in the body and I have put it in the neighbour’s garden. You had better knock on their door.”
Ms King went to her neighbours’ garden where she saw her kitten lying motionless on the floor, making no attempt to move.
The kitten had to have her right leg amputated. One air rifle pellet caused a tear in Pia’s windpipe, while the other shattered her femur.
Ms King paid £5,168 for Pia’s veterinary treatment bills after the cat was rushed to a vet and spent more than a week at a Cambridge veterinary hospital.
In a victim impact statement, Ms King said: “I feel devastated and horrified and cannot fathom why somebody I do not know would carry out such an act.
“I cannot believe Chris would be so calm and calculated over what he has done as if he got some enjoyment from it – as he did not have to tell us and could have chosen to remain quiet.”
Following Boswell’s initial sentencing, a neighbour raised concerns he could have something to do with the disappearance of between 12 and 20 cats that have gone missing in the area in the previous five years.
Michael Magee, mitigating for Boswell in the appeal hearing, said Boswell became increasingly isolated and lived a very solitary existence after his retirement.
He told the court that at the time of the incident, Boswell was on painkillers to deal with chronic arthritis and an itching rash “much like scabies” which had spread over his body.
Mr Magee added: “He became increasingly housebound and this led to a deterioration in his mental state.
“In terms of culpability, one can understand how he fostered his little garden and the birds that came into that garden…that was his very small connection to the previous active life that he had.
“With the background of the mental health issues, he picked up an air rifle while in drink, which belonged to his son, and stupidly shot the cat.
“His desire was to protect the birds, not to cause the cat harm.
“With matters of his pain, the cancer, the severe itching rash that had covered the vast majority of his body, the loneliness and perhaps the focus on his family of birds, he called it; he took that relatively stupid decision.”
Mr Magee said Boswell was a rowing coach for many years and had recently been volunteering two nights week for the Cam Rowers charity.
He urged the court to suspend Boswell’s prison sentence, telling them he had sought help for his alcohol addiction entirely by himself and that he was now in a position to be more active in his life.
After retiring to consider the appeal, Recorder Sandeep Kainth warned Boswell that his actions were “grave and serious” but said he felt satisfied that Boswell’s prison sentence could be suspended.
He added: “This was a deliberate attempt to cause suffering; this is evidenced by your actions of shooting the cat two times not one.
“But there are more mitigating features than aggravating features in this case.
“You have an excellent work ethic, you are a man of good character, this incident was isolated and you have shown genuine remorse.
“The risk of you offending again is very low; we accept that your motive was to protect the birds in your garden.
“It’s disappointing that at the age of 73 you find yourself before the courts, but we accept that for you this is a salutary lesson in itself.”
Sentencing: Boswell’s immediate prison sentence earlier handed down by magistrates was amended to a 12-week sentence, suspended for one year.
The court heard that Boswell had paid the £1,500 compensation to Ms King and his air rifle had been forfeited and destroyed.
CONVICTED (2017) | Richard Ridley, born 28 August 1987, last known address Braid Crescent, Billingham TS23 – subjected a dog to violence during a campaign of abuse against his then partner; ripped the head off a pigeon in a rage
In June 2017 paranoid violent drug taker Richard Ridley was sentenced to a total of 13-and-a-half years for domestic abuse, including nine-and-a-half in prison. The jail term was cut to eight years in March 2018.
Ridley’s ex-partner Gemma Willis was subjected to regular attacks by him, during which he punched her, smashed her head through glass windows and dragged her up flights of stairs by her hair.
Dusty was subjected to sadistic cruelty by Richard Ridley
Gemma’s pet dog, Rottweiler/German Shepherd cross Dusty, was also targeted by Ridley, who once ripped the head off a live pigeon in a fit of rage. Gemma described how the thug “kicked and threw shovels and hammers at [Dusty]. He was choked, hit with planks of wood and shot with BB guns”.
2022 image of lifelong headcase Richard Ridley
Although Gemma was desperate to escape, she knew she couldn’t leave Dusty behind but was unable to find a refuge able to take pets. In the end, she received support from the Dogs Trust under their Freedom Project. This provides temporary foster care for dogs belonging to families fleeing domestic violence.
The service runs in London and the Home Counties, Yorkshire, the North East, North West and Scotland.
#MostEvil | Franky Jay Mills (aka Franky Webb), born 18/05/1997, with a most recent (2020) known address of Gloster Road, Woking GU22 9EU, but with links to Godalming and Farncombe- used a £5,000 air rifle to shoot at least eight pet cats, killing one and maiming others.
Cat killer Franky Mills pleaded guilty to 14 offences and was jailed for 24 months
Injuries suffered by evil Franky Mills’ eight victims included lost eyes, an amputated leg and bisected spleen – and one of the animals died.
The court heard that Mills, a traveller, drove around the Cranleigh and Guildford area in March and April 2016, allowing another as yet unidentified person to shoot the cats with an air rifle.
Mills pleaded guilty to 14 charges, seven of which were offences of criminal damage valued at more than £5,000, relating to the cat attacks, and another seven counts of possessing a firearm – namely a 0.22 air rifle.
Mills’ defence barrister, Ian Wilkinson, said the teenager was an “extremely damaged man”, with his background being from the travelling community.
“Clearly what Mills was involved in was a horrible thing, we do not suggest anything otherwise,” he said.
“He inflicted pain on animals, and caused a great deal of distress emotionally, and financially. He is in no way able to change what he has done. An apology seems rather trifle at this time.
“The only way he can make amends is to lead a law abiding life, and not behave in such an appalling way in the future.”
He continued: “He felt peer pressure, wanting to be part of that group, part of the travelling community. He could have been braver, and said no, but he didn’t.”
Judge Jonathan Black said that he sentenced Mills on the fact that he was the person driving around the area, who “found a suitable target and stopped, allowing a passenger to shoot the cats – using his own air weapon”.
“This was a joint enterprise, you played a full part in injuring these animals,” he said.
The court heard no names of others who were involved in the shooting of the cats.
The judge continued: “You caused a high degree of suffering. One cat had its leg amputated, two had eyes removed, and one was put to sleep.
“These cats were much loved, children who had been brought up with them witnessed the injuries. They have been traumatised due to your cruel and callous behaviour.
“It’s clear yours was a difficult upbringing, but you have demonstrated you are someone capable of doing well in the future. Your start in life has not led you here today.”
Speaking after the sentence, Sergeant Paul Eden, who investigated the case, said Mills was not the only person involved in the shootings.
He said: “As officer in the case, seeing all the evidence, I firmly believe while he was the main protagonist, he was not the only person responsible in this joint enterprise.”
Sergeant Eden continued: “Franky Mills was the owner of the vehicle used at the time and it was definitely his air weapon.
“We managed to prove, we even had to exhume one of the cats to get the evidence where we extracted the pellet and matched to his rifle, so we could say beyond reasonable doubt that it was his gun which had been shooting these cats.
“He was driving around, and we believe, he stated, that he pulled up alongside and allowed his passengers to shoot it.
“So although he wasn’t claiming to be the trigger puller, clearly he must have known what his friends were doing because he was enabling it to happen by stopping the car providing the weapon and providing the ammunition.
“So to my mind and to the law it made him as guilty as the next person.”
Sentencing: 24 months’ imprisonment. No mention of a ban.
