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) | 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).
#MostEvil | Anthony Cockrell, born March 1959, of Littleoakes, Penryn TR10 8QE – stabbed family dog to death during a row
Anthony Cockrell
Cockrell stabbed springer spaniel Ozzy repeatedly with a carving knife. A five-inch-deep cut severed the dog’s jugular vein and he bled to death.
Cockrell’s attack on the seven-year-old pet occurred during a family row. Ozzy began barking and growling and jumping up at Cockrell, who then left the room and returned with a large kitchen knife. The dog was stabbed with it and the police and a vet were called.
Victim Ozzy died while protecting his family from violent Anthony Cockrell
Despite a desperate effort to save Ozzy, the dog died from his injuries.
Cockrell’s now ex wife said: “My dog bled to death. It was horrendous. I still haven’t been able to get any closure. He’d had a drink and was not a very calm man. I don’t want to talk to him and I don’t want to see him.”
Cockrell, who works as an aviation engineer, claimed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress after fighting in the Falklands War.
Sentence: 18-week prison sentence. Lifetime ban on keeping animals.
CONVICTED (2008) | Andrea Smiley, born 08/01/1980, of Blackstoun Oval, Paisley PA3 1LR – left her pet German shepherd to starve to death in her abandoned flat.
Heartless Andrea Smiley who abandoned an Alsatian to starve to death
The desperate dog had locked condensation from a window in a desperate attempt for water.
A post mortem showed Snowy had no traces of food in her stomach and had lost two-thirds of her body weight. She had been shut in a room of the ground-floor flat, amid total squalor with the door tied with string and wool to keep it shut. By the time worried neighbours raised the alarm it was too late and Snowy had already died from starvation.
Before sentence was passed, Smiley’s defence agent made a plea for mitigation. He said two psychiatric reports had been submitted showing that his client was emotionally unstable and experiencing bouts of depression which led her to self-harm.
He also said she was living in fear after being threatened following publicity from earlier hearings.
Sentence: 240 hours of community service. Banned from keeping animals for life.
CONVICTED (2008) | dog fighter Clayton Paul Beard, born 2 May 1983, and as of June 2021 of The Beeches, Prospect Way, Birchills, Walsall WS2 7FD
Clayton Beard, then of Cannon Street, Ryecroft, Walsall, had three dogs in his possession when RSPCA inspectors raided his home in 2007. Beard, whom locals nicknamed “the Dog Man”, admitted owning two male and one female pit bulls, causing unnecessary suffering to one of the dogs, possessing animal fighting equipment and keeping or training the dogs for fighting purposes.
A treadmill and other equipment was found at Beard’s home and the court heard how he forced his dogs through a cruel daily training schedule. A makeshift veterinary kit, which included superglue for sealing fighting wounds, was also discovered.
One dog, called Lee, had suffered 70 wounds. Another two animals also had 35 wounds and 24 wounds each.
Magistrates ordered two dogs to be destroyed immediately.
The case was the first dog fighting prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, according to the RSPCA.
Magistrate Michael Kearns said a custodial sentence had been “inevitable”.
He told Beard that he had three “highly dangerous dogs of an aggressive breed” in his possession.
The three dogs had received many wounds “over a prolonged period which must have caused them suffering”, but Beard had made “no effort” to seek veterinary attention for them.
Instead, Beard had been involved in treating the animals’ wounds so that they could fight again, the court heard.
The court heard that Beard was a man of “limited cognitive ability” who had received “abuse” from his neighbours.
Speaking outside court, Chief Inspector Ian Briggs, of the RSPCA’s Special Operations Unit, said he was “extremely pleased” with the custodial sentence and ban.
He said: “People involved in these activities should not be able to own animals.”
He said that animal protection bodies had welcomed the new offences of possessing articles adapted for training animals to fight, and keeping animals in connection with fighting.
He said: “We always come across these articles on dog fighting operations, but before it’s never been an offence.”
Sentencing: 18 weeks in custody. Banned for life from keeping or being responsible for any animals.
In November 2007 an Irish traveller named Ceri Louisa O’Neill, also from Birchills in Walsall, was banned from keeping dogs for three years after admitting selling the pit bull terrier known as Lee to Clayton Beard.
James Cooper, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, told the court the offences came to light when an inspector and police officers visited Beard’s home following a tip-off.
Mr Cooper told the court the inquiry then moved to Miner Street, where O’Neill lived at the time with adult sons James and Patrick O’Neill and daughter Astar Louise O’Neill.
He said: “The defendant accepted the dog had been in her possession and that she took it to Beard to be treated by him and in fact sold it to him for £100.”
When pit bull expert Jane Robson examined Lee there was evidence of more than 45 wounds, scabs on his face, head, chest and legs. Some were four to six weeks old.
Mr Stephen Scully, defending, said: “Earlier this year her ex-husband brought the dog as a gift. He told her he rescued it from fighting.”
He said when the couple split the dog was left in her care. She took him to Beard later that day after the animal was involved in a “scrap” with other dogs in Pelsall after her daughter took him to a fair without her permission.
Ceri Louise O’Neill is now deceased.
As of June 2021 Astar O’Neill, born 24 July 1991, lives at the Caravan Site, Ruthin Road, Coedpoeth, Wrexham LL11 3BP.
CONVICTED (2005) | Karen Fox, born 31/05/1964, and as at November 2019 of 24 Haslam Grove, Shipley BD18 1PQ – tortured a six-week-old puppy before strangling him
Karen Fox has a history of sadistic animal abuse
Bradford magistrates heard Karen Fox had also committed “evil” and “sickening” acts of cruelty against other animals in the past. They told Fox it was their duty to jail her.
Fox had admitted strangling to death the six-week-old Jack Russell puppy the day after she had bought him as a birthday present for her young daughter.
She wept uncontrollably as she was imprisoned for 60 days and was led away in hysterics.
The court was told Fox, who pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty, suffered from depression. Magistrates were urged by her solicitor not to jail her.
However, bench chairman Granville Dobson, passing sentence after reading a pre-sentence report, said: “You have harmed animals in the past in the most appalling fashion. The reports we have just read are beyond belief. The acts of evil described in them are sickening.
“This bench would not be filling its duty if it did not treat these offences extremely seriously.”
The court was told how Fox had killed the puppy the day after she had bought him for her daughter’s birthday. Nigel Monaghan, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said Fox had bought the dog for £150 but attacked him when she could not get to sleep because of his crying.
It was alleged that sadistic Fox tortured the puppy before finally killing him by strangulation.
The court heard how the puppy’s body was found wrapped in a blood-stained towel by a neighbour who tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
The RSPCA was called and Mr Monaghan said that when questioned Fox fully admitted what she had done.
Fox, then of Sutton Avenue, Swain House, Bradford, told the RSPCA: “It was whining and yelping. I picked it up and strangled it. I stopped when it had gone limp.”
Arshad Mahmood, mitigating, had urged the magistrates to impose a community penalty.
He said Fox, who had no previous convictions, suffered from a mental health condition known as emotional unstable personality disorder which makes her feel down all the time.
He said she had suffered from the condition since she was 15 and had twice tried to take her own life when she was aged 17.
Mr Mahmood told the magistrates that Fox was devastated by her actions but had been feeling extremely unwell at the time of the offence in August 2004 and has since been receiving treatment at Lynfield Mount Hospital in Bradford.
The court heard that Fox had been receiving hate mail since the court case began and that her 12-year-old daughter had been bullied at school as a result of the incident.
An RSPCA spokesman said: “This sentence is a significant indication that the court took this offence extremely seriously.
“It was a tragic and horrible incident but also an act of cruelty. This is not acceptable and clearly the court took that view as well.
“This type of cruelty to animals is very rare.
“The majority of cases dealt with by the RSPCA are people who have failed to do something for their animal.
“Instances of actual physical attacks on animals are in a minority although they are on the increase which is a worrying concern.”
Sentencing: jailed for 60 days. Banned from having custody of any animal for the rest of her life.
CONVICTED (2003) | Suzanne Greenhalgh, born 16/05/1959, of Roy Street, Oldham OL2 5PW – drowned a dog and her five puppies in her kitchen sink before dumping them in a wheelie bin
Suzanne Greenhalgh pictured outside court in 2003
Mother-of-three Suzanne Greenhalgh was banned from owning a pet for 25 years after admitting killing crossbreed terrier Poppy, who she had had for seven years, and her five three-week-old puppies.
The court heard that RSPCA inspector Liz Walker, acting on a tip-off, went to Greenhalgh’s home in July 2002 and asked to look in the wheelie bin. She found the body of Poppy in a shopping bag.
When questioned, Greenhalgh immediately told the inspector that the five dead puppies were also in a bag in the bin.
Inspector Walker asked if she thought what she had done was cruel. Greenhalgh replied: “No. I though it was for the best, I had had trouble finding homes for the puppies.
“Everyone was shouting at me and nobody in the street liked Poppy because she had bitten a couple of people.”
Michael Cheetham, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said it would have taken between 30 and 90 seconds for each of the dogs to lose consciousness when being drowned. He added this would have caused considerable distress to them.
Bob Vining, defending, said: “Clearly she was suffering from ill-health at the time. She had finished a 16-hour shift at work and had to do three hours of housework and everything was on top of her. The GP had stopped her medication, which had not helped.
“She is never, ever going to forget what she did and does not, herself, understand in the cold light of day how it happened.”
Imposing a 240-hour community punishment order and the 25-year pet ban, magistrates’ chairman Alec Buckley said: “Quite clearly, this is an extremely horrendous and cruel offence.”
Mr Buckley said a custodial sentence would have been justified but he took into account a medical report on Greenhalgh and accepted she was suffering from a depressive illness at the time she committed the offence.
Sentencing: 240 hours of community service; ordered to pay £861 costs. Banned from keeping animals for 25 years (expires February 2028).
CONVICTED (2001) | Nadine Marie Trewin, born 29/08/1969, currently (2018) of Forge Road, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1QR – cooked her pet cat in a microwave oven after she was bitten on the leg by a flea
Mother-of-two Nadine Marie Trewer of Crawley microwaved a cat to death while drunk
Mother-of-two Trewin had changed her plea and admitted cruelty during a trial at Horsham magistrates’ court in June 2001.
The court heard that Trewin had drunk seven cans of lager and two bottles of wine when the offence was committed.
She told the court that she had become angry when a flea from the 6yo tabby, who was called Sasha, bit her on the leg.
She said the cat jumped into the microwave before the door accidentally slammed shut, activating the oven.
She said the cat had cooked for less than a minute, but then the animal failed to move so she tipped her out of the oven from the kitchen window.
She later buried Sasha in the back garden.
Two days later Trewin told her friend Stacey Passmore that she had killed the cat. Miss Passmore was so upset she decided to contact the RSPCA, which prosecuted Trewin.
The court was told that Trewin been suffering from depression and had been prescribed Prozac when the incident occurred.
Trewin’s lawyer said his client “didn’t intend to deliberately harm the cat” and read out a statement from her in which she described herself as having “strong feelings of love for animals”.
As Trewin left the court, animal rights protesters shouted: “Cat killer.”
The RSPCA, which brought the case to court, condemned Trewin’s five-year ban as “far too lenient”.
RSPCA spokeswoman Claire Kennet said: “We feel she should have received a lifetime ban because the act was deliberate.”
Sentencing: Two-year community rehabilitation order. Banned from keeping animals for five years.
