CONVICTED (2024) | Kyle Vaughan, born 28 August 1997, of 100 Milltown Road, Lisburn BT28 3TZ – starved two dogs to a skeletal condition.
Vaughan, owner of vehicle valeting business K.V Carkleen, was convicted of cruelty to a Doberman-type and Husky-type dog.
The unnamed dogs were examined by a vet who found they were “suffering due to starvation”. Both had visible hip and rib bones and their spines were prominent.
The charges date back to September 2023 when a local authority animal welfare officer received a report of concern from council enforcement officers who had taken possession of the two dogs.
The dogs were taken into the care of a local animal sanctuary and nursed back to health. They have since been rehomed.
Sentencing | two-year conditional discharge; ordered to pay a total of £369 in legal costs and vet fees. Disqualified from keeping animals for five years (expires April 2029).
CONVICTED (2021) | Paul Green, born c. 1973, and wife Donna Green, age unknown, of Ballymacash Road, Lisburn – banned from keeping animals after six dogs they were looking after were found covered in excrement and urine.
Donna and Paul Green failed to look after six helpless dogs found in squalor
The Greens admitted a joint charge of failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the needs of five little Shih Tzu/Lhasa Apso type dogs and one nursing Lhasa Apso dog on October 24, 2019.
The pair said they were asked to mind the dogs by a female friend while she was on holiday.
Paul Green admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the dogs while his wife Donna admitted permitting them to be caused unnecessary suffering at a property on the Lany Road in Moira.
The court heard that when inspectors called at the property, the dogs were being kept in cages, stacked on top of each other in a barn which was “pungent” with the smell of urine.
A prosecutor described how all of the dogs’ coats were soaked in faeces and urine with a multitude of infected paws and none of them had access to water.
The lawyer said while the dogs were not overly thin, the conditions they were being kept in was not acceptable. Guilt
The couple’s lawyers revealed that while their clients accepted their guilt because they were in charge of the dogs at the time of the inspection, the pets actually belonged to a friend who had asked the pair to look after them while she went in holiday for six days.
Paul Green’s lawyer conceded his client “didn’t take enough care in washing the dogs” but said he felt “slightly aggrieved” that the owner wasn’t prosecuted as well “because the system of care was clearly her responsibility.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Donna Green’s lawyer who said the reason the owner wasn’t prosecuted “may be due to the fact that the Greens were responsible for that period of time.”
The lawyers submitted that while the councils were seeking costs awarded against the couple amounting to £3,239, they were unemployed and in receipt of universal credit.
District Judge Rosie Watters said that from looking at the photographs and statements, “it’s more than just a few days of neglect and I can’t help but wonder if it’s more than five days’ worth.”
Sentencing: two-year conditional discharge; ordered to pay costs of £1,500. Banned from keeping animals for five years.
#MostEvil | Marcus John Sarre, born 06/01/1994, of Avonmore Park, Lisburn BT28 1NE – crushed the skull of a 15-week-old puppy after she urinated on the kitchen floor
Puppy killer Marcus Sarre from Lisburn, Northern Ireland
Aspiring singer Sarre, who has admitted to having a problem with alcoholism, pleaded guilty to a single count of causing unnecessary suffering to the 15-week-old crossbred husky and collie, named Lilo, on April 14, 2018.
The court heard how neighbours called police when they heard screaming.
Prosecuting counsel Nicola Aurett told the court that when police arrived they saw blood on the hallway with a trail leading them to the bathroom.
“The dog was lying dead in the bath with blood all around it,” said the lawyer adding that Sarre, who had “drink taken”, admitted kicking the puppy.
She told the court that a report from a pathologist who examined the dog’s remains said the cause of her death was skull fractures.
Arrested and interviewed, Sarre said that he had let the dogs out after he had been away for a short time but his older dog, Polo, did a poo on the kitchen floor and he shouted loudly at him. This caused Lilo to urinate on the floor and he kicked her against a kitchen cupboard.
Sarre, who was upset during police interviews, told officers Lilo was bleeding from the mouth and was unresponsive so he took her to the bathroom where he tried CPR but without success.
Ms Auret submitted it was an aggravating feature that at the time of the incident, Sarre was on bail for assault.
In that case, the court heard that police were called at an address in Lisburn on January 21, 2017, and found a female sitting in a sofa, crying and bleeding from her swollen nose. The woman, the ex-partner of Sarre’s father, said the pair had been drinking when Sarre tried to kiss her but that when she pushed him away, he head butted her and then kicked her several times when she fell to the floor.
Defence counsel Damien Halloran conceded that both incidents had been “deeply unsavoury”. He added that Lilo’s tragic death was “almost instantaneous” and while Sarre tried to resuscitate the dog, it was a “futile exercise”.
The lawyer submitted it had been a “moment of madness” for Sarre to lash out but Lilo’s death had left him “completely hysterical, lying on the ground crying”, adding there was no suggestion of cruelty to his other dog Polo whom he rehomed from a rescue centre five years ago.
Mr Halleron revealed that Sarre had been abusing alcohol and drugs and had a difficulty coping with stress “if things didn’t go his way”, submitting that the judge could impose community service or leave “something hanging over his head”.
Judge Lynch disagreed however and jailed Sarre. For killing Lilo, Sarre was jailed for six months and the judge imposed four months for causing actual bodily harm, ordering the sentences to be served consecutively.
Sentencing Jailed for six months for kicking the puppy to death, followed by 18 months on supervised licence. He will serve a further four months in jail for head-butting his father’s ex-partner. Banned from keeping any animals for 10 years.
CONVICTED (2011) | Henry Williamson, born 16/02/1942, of 56 Barnfield Road, Dunmurry, Belfast, County Antrim BT28 3TQ – ran a “dog factory” where animals were kept purely for profit and for repeated breeding.
In June 2011 Williamson pleaded guilty to six charges of causing unnecessary suffering to puppies and dogs in relation to his breeding operation.
Over 60 dogs were found at the premises in filthy makeshift pens with no access to natural light. Many of the animals had urine scalds on their paws and many more were suffering from skin and ear irritations. None of the dogs were being fed a proper diet. Any medical treatment had been administered by Williamson himself.
The Chief Executive of the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) said this of Williamson’s horrific treatment of the dogs: “We believe that if one pup wasn’t fit to go in the shop window he disposed of it in what we would call a very, very callous manner.
“He wasn’t one bit interested in the dogs — he was only interested in what came out of their wombs. That’s all he cared about: what was pregnant and what gave birth”.
Horrifically it seemed that dead pups had been fed through a mincer, which was clogged with “blood, guts and animal fur”, and fed to Williamson’s ferrets. The half-eaten carcasses of still-born pups were removed from the ferret enclosure.
Williamson was due to be sentenced in July 2011 but we have as yet been unable to find any information on this.
