CONVICTED (2024) | Richard Collier, born c. 1994, of Meadow Close, Woodley, Stockport SK6 1QZ – hurled a cat through the air and onto the floor, causing fatal injuries.
Angry after the family cat, Bella, hissed at him, Collier said he launched her upwards while she was in her bed with her landing on the floor. He then picked her up but Bella had a seizure and died in his arms.
Woodley locals took to social media as news of Collier’s horrific animal cruelty spread
In a basis of plea document Collier stated: “I was in the living room with my partner and children. Bella [the cat] was on the back of the sofa near my partner. She grabbed it and threw her to the floor and it ran into the soft cat tent.
“Bella hissed at me, I don’t know why but I threw it up into the air and she landed on the floor. I thought it would just get a shock. It had a seizure and died in my arms.”
Collier said he was ‘very upset and sorry’, claiming he didn’t mean to hurt the cat. He said he had been diagnosed with ‘intermittent explosive disorder’.
In a statement, his former partner described Collier’s behaviour as ‘disgusting’.
Reading her statement to the court, prosecutor Ewan Cooper said: “It’s not normal to behave in this way, it is not normal for kids to see that and they’ll be affected by it.
“It’s not normal to go from sitting as a family to killing an innocent cat by smacking it against the floor.”
Mitigating, Saul Komish said Collier ‘lost his temper’, adding: “He accepted that he lost his temper as the cat went inside and threw the cat bed up into the air causing it to have a seizure.
“It was the family cat, they had it for six years, he was close to the cat. He is clearly remorseful.”
Mr Komish said Collier had no intention of injuring the cat, but the consequences of his actions were ‘clearly foreseeable’. He added that he has had no contact with his partner or children since the attack.
“He would say it was not a deliberate attempt to cause injury, but it was a momentary lapse in judgement,” the solicitor added.
Sentencing | 12-week sentence, suspended for 12 months; 100 hours of unpaid work and 20 days of rehab; £239 court costs. No mention of a ban.
CONVICTED (2023) | backyard pet breeder Navdeep Singh aka Rozer Sandhu or Navdeep Singh Sandhu, born August 1984, of 37 Culver Road, Stockport SK3 8PG – kept malnourished dogs and cats in appalling conditions.
Self-proclaimed ‘TikTok star’ Navdeep Singh kept dogs in ‘faeces-strewn yard’ and cats in a baking hot aviary without water. Image source: Rozer Sandhu, Facebook
Singh, a self-proclaimed TikTok star who came to the UK from India, pleaded guilty to seven offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in relation to several French bulldogs and Bengal cats kept in grim conditions at his home.
Four French bulldogs were found in a faeces-strewn yard with a further four malnourished puppies discovered in a garage.
The RSPCA had previously issued Singh with warnings to clear up the yard and cattery and take one of the puppies to the vet, but he failed to take action.
RSPCA inspector Beth Fazakerley subsequently attended Singh’s home with two police officers and found adult bulldogs Luna, Rocky, Daisy and Blue in the filthy yard. Four puppies, described as underweight with bones prominent through their skin, were found hunched up among ripped up cardboard and faeces in the garage of the property.
Five Bengal cats were being kept in an aviary, where they were fully exposed to the elements as temperatures soared as high as 36C.
Inspector Fazakerley also witnessed five cats housed in four separate rooms in a back garden aviary during a searing heatwave. Singh had also failed to provide the animals with clean water.
Inspector Fazakerley : “The first thing I noticed as I walked through the main door of the aviary was the extreme heat – within seconds I was sweating profusely and just walking around was uncomfortable.
“I took the temperature on my temperature gun and in the cleanest area for the cats it reached 36C. It was cooler in the rear, but there was virtually nowhere for the cats to lie down that was comfortable and clean from faeces and urine. Throughout the enclosure there was straw, piles of rubbish, empty bin bags, old food wrappers and a heat lamp switched on in a crate.”
Another RSPCA inspector Heather Morris told the court that Singh had said he was “making large amounts of money” from his TikTok videos.
She added: “He said he was quite busy and was planning on selling the house as his relationship had broken down with his girlfriend. He admitted that he wasn’t doing enough for the animals.”
All of the animals were seized and taken to Greater Manchester Animal Hospital. Singh later signed over the puppies and and two litters of two kittens who were born after the cats were removed from the property.
A vet’s expert report stated that all four of the puppies were very thin, scoring one out of nine on a body condition score when an ideal weight would be four or five.
The vet added: “It is clear the cats’ accommodation was excessively hot and would have had a negative impact on these animals, particularly as they had no access to water.
“While the temperatures measured in the puppies’ accommodation were within the acceptable range, French bulldogs are extremely susceptible to heat stroke due to their brachycephalic conformation and this can have a significant, negative welfare impact and even be fatal if left untreated.
“A number of the adults were seen panting and the original call to the police related to the dogs being distressed due to the heat. Brachycephalic dogs must be kept at cooler temperatures than other dog breeds. They should actively be kept out of the sun, have access to fresh clean water and ventilation, such as a fan.”
Sentencing | fined £8,199.98 and ordered to pay the RSPCA’s prosecution costs of £1,086.98. Banned from owning animals for six years (expires April 2029).
CONVICTED (2023) | Jade O’Brien, born c. 1987, of Ack Lane, Cheadle Hulme, Stockport – left an XL bully in agony with untreated wounds to her ears.
Jade O’Brien told an RSPCA inspector she likes the crop-eared look on dogs
Jade O’Brien’s six-month-old XL bully-type breed called Babyface had stitch wounds that became infected after undergoing an ear cropping procedure, which is illegal in the UK.
O’Brien said the procedure had been carried out abroad but admitted she did not take the dog to a vet for treatment.
O’Brien’s puppy was left with untreated infected stitch wounds from ear cropping
The RSPCA first became involved when Inspector Beth Fazakerley went to a vets in Accrington, Lancashire, on September 1, 2021 to examine two dogs who had been seized by police as part of an investigation under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
One of them was Babyface who had ‘prominent scars’ from stitches after recently having her ears cropped. A staff member confirmed that when the dog arrived at the kennels two weeks before, she was suffering with open wounds to both ears.
In a witness statement Inspector Fazakerley said: “You could clearly see multiple horizontal scars and I was told that when she was seized she still had sutures that were cutting into her skin due to how inflamed and infected her ears were.”
O’Brien later told Inspector Fazakerley that the dog had been imported from the US and that she was bought with her ears already cropped.
“She informed me that she bought Babyface from America as she buys her dogs from there and she said she likes the cropped-eared look,” the inspector said. “She said she’d only had Babyface a few days and she’d bought her with her ears already cropped.”
“I asked if the dog had seen a vet and she said she didn’t want to take her as she knew she would get in trouble. But she’d asked her gardener, who breeds dogs, for help and he provided her with some antibiotics.”
O’Brien said she had administered one dose of antibiotics before the dog was seized from her home along with another female bully breed.
After being seized, Babyface was taken to a vet to have her stitches removed and she was treated with painkillers and antibiotics.
An expert vet said the wounds on each of the dog’s ear pinnas appeared to be less than a week old and were ‘severely infected’ with a ‘pus-like discharge.’
They concluded that Babyface would have been in pain for at least five days as she had not received any pain-killing medication.
O’Brien pleaded guilty to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog.
Another defendant has pleaded guilty to an animal welfare offence and will be sentenced at a later date, the RSPCA said.
History of violence: O’Brien is pictured during a court appearance in 2013 where she faced charges of assault
O’Brien, who has a 2013 conviction for assaulting a lollipop lady, claimed in mitigation she had ‘been influenced’ and ‘has health issues’.
Babyface was taken into the care of the RSPCA’s Southport, Ormskirk and District Branch who will now find her a new home.
Speaking after the case, inspector Fazakerley said: “Ear cropping is all about image and owners who do this to their dogs or take on ownership when this procedure has already been done don’t seem to realise the repercussions for the animals in terms of how it affects their behaviour or the dreadful pain they go through.”
Sentencing | 18 month community order with 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days; £495 in costs and victim surcharge. Deprivation orders on Babyface and the other bully breed dog. Three-year ban on keeping any canines (expires March 2026).
O’Brien has now been sentenced to four months in prison after an XL Bully she was in charge of mauled a dog owner and killed another dog in two horrifying attacks just two weeks apart.
Narla will be destroyed after her owner allowed her to be dangerously out of control, resulting in her killing another dog and biting a woman in two separate incidents
Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard how a woman was walking her one-year-old spaniel with her two children in July 2021 when she spotted a large grey dog running down O’Brien’s driveway. O’Brien was looking after Narla for her ex-partner when the attacks took place.
The woman worried by the XL Bully grabbed her spaniel but then the dog attacked her instead. She was forced back into a hedge and was bitten with serious injuries to her arms and legs while she was left with marks that were visible six months afterwards.
In a second attack just two weeks later, the XL Bully went for a small white dog that was being walked near O’Brien’s home. The teenage girl who was walking the animal ran away as she thought Narla was going to attack her but instead she went for her dog.
Sadly the white dog had to be put down by a vet after being badly bitten and having flesh ripped from her hind legs.
O’Brien pleaded guilty to two charges of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and one charge of using threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour.
Jonathan Condor, defending, told Manchester Magistrates’ Court that the XL Bully belonged to her former partner who was on remand in prison for allegedly assaulting her.
He claimed that the defendant was the victim of domestic abuse and had suffered a stroke but still accepted her responsibility for the attacks.
Mr Condor said that O’Brien was a “dog lover” and was upset by the attack on the teenager’s pet. She was also said to be “strongly opposed” to Narla being put down. He argued that O’Brien needed to “settle down and get a clean start”.
District judge Thomas Mitchell said he took O’Brien’s circumstances into consideration and that they had “to some extent been imposed upon” her by the ex-partner and that she was not the best person to be looking after the dog. But he jailed O’Brien for four months saying it was a serious case that required immediate custody.
O’Brien was also banned from owning a dog for five years, given a £154 victim surcharge and a destruction order was also made for the XL Bully Narla.
CONVICTED (2022) | paedophile Douglas Moore, born 19 February 1988, from Stockport – sexually abused his dog and shared extreme content online.
Moore was jailed for five years after being convicted of multiple sex offences, including having intercourse with an animal.
Met officers were investigating a separate matter when they discovered a video of a dog being subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Enquiries identified the person in the video as Moore.
The content of the video was so distressing that senior officers in the Met were contacted and a warrant was sought to rescue the animal and arrest Moore.
On 8 November 2021, police attended Moore’s home address in Stockport and arrested him on suspicion of bestiality, possession of extreme pornography and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
The dog was found and was removed from the address. A quantity of cannabis was also found.
Moore was taken into custody and a number of devices, including his mobile phone and computer, were seized for specialist examination.
Evidence found on the devices proved Moore had been abusing the dog over an extended period of time and had been using the dark web to view further extreme content of animals and humans.
Officers discovered he had sought out opportunities to swap and share material with others and had discussed meeting others to abuse dogs and children. No evidence was found that these attempted meetings had come to fruition.
Officers found Moore had gone to great lengths to clear chat logs and website histories in an attempt to hide his offending.
Moore was convicted of a total of 24 counts including the following offences:
Intercourse with an animal
Causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal
Possession of an extreme pornographic image / images portraying an act of intercourse / oral sex with a dead / alive animal
Intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence of intercourse with an animal
Making indecent photograph / pseudo-photograph of a child
Attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence
Publishing an obscene online article
Possession of a controlled drug of Class B – Cannabis / Cannabis resin
He will be on the sex offenders register for life upon his release. He is also banned from owning animals.
PC Pete Howes, from the Online Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation Command, said: “Upon discovery of the original video we took immediate and decisive action to identify Moore and save the dog.
“I am happy to say the dog is now safe and well and being cared for.
“The scale of evidence compiled meant Moore was left with no option but to plead guilty. I’m pleased he is now in jail where he belongs.
“It is no exaggeration to say that this investigation may well have spared more animals, and humans, from coming to incredibly serious harm.”
Sentencing | jailed for five years. Indefinite ban on owning animals. Lifelong entry on the sex offenders register.
CONVICTED (2022) | James McAlonan, born 29 October 1977, of Devon Close, Brinnington, Stockport SK5 8DD – neglected a snake, who had to be put to sleep.
James McAlonan and his boa constrictor Bella, who lost her life due to his neglect.
McAlonan was convicted of neglecting a female seven-feet boa constrictor named Bella. She was kept in a vivarium which measured just 4ft by 2ft.
He admitted two charges under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 of causing unnecessary suffering and failing to meet the needs of the boa constrictor.
McAlonan was keeping a number of reptiles at his home, including turtles, but Bella was found to be suffering from a serious mouth infection for which vet treatment had not been sought.
“Her skin was scabbed and bleeding, and she was living in ‘inadequate conditions’ in a vivarium whose internal temperature was too low for a snake to thrive,” said the RSPCA. “The enclosure was also too small for the snake, who was seven-foot in length.”
RSPCA Inspector Demi Hodby was asked to attend McAlonan’s flat by police, who executed a warrant there on February 18, 2021, after reports the boa constrictor was roaming around loose inside.
In a witness statement to the court, Inspector Hodby, said Bella was ‘very cold’ to touch, the temperature of the vivarium was between 13.3C and 13.8C and there was no food or water laid down for her.
She said: “She was unable to close her mouth and appeared to have a mouth infection as there was saliva around the area. There was a large lump under her chin and her skin was scabby and bleeding in places, while she appeared to be in a very bad shed.”
McAlonan allowed the inspector to take Bella to a vet, but sadly the reptile’s health was so poor that she had to be put to sleep. Vet Aiden Raftery said in his expert report to the court the snake was suffering from painful mouth lesions and combined with other skin abnormalities it would not have been possible to cure her.
The RSPCA said the vet stated the snake should have been in a vivarium of at least 7ft by 3ft4″.
Mr Raftery said in his report: “Failure to provide the correct environmental temperature will have predisposed this animal to infections. The area of infection in the rostral area of the mouth would have taken many weeks to reach the state it was at.”
In mitigation, the court was told that McAlonan had signed over the snake to the RSPCA voluntarily.
Speaking after the case, Inspector Hodby said: “This snake died because of poor husbandry as the temperatures she was being kept at meant she developed a viral infection. Caring for a snake like a boa requires more expert knowledge and he should have done his research.”
Sentencing | 12-month community sentence with 75 hours of unpaid work and15 rehabilitation activity days; £400 costs. Banned from keeping exotic animals for just two years (expires June 2024).
CONVICTED (2022) | Claire Anderson, born c. 1988, of Hazelwood Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport SK7 4NA – blew cannabis smoke up her pet dog’s nose to impress her jailbird boyfriend.
Claire Anderson
The court heard that Anderson had been speaking to her partner James Millington, who had called her from prison at 11pm on November 26, 2020. Anderson was smoking a cannabis joint at the time of the phone call, which was recorded.
The court heard that Anderson’s dog, called Benji, could be heard in the background of the call. Millington told Anderson: “Put your hand around his nose, put the joint in your mouth and blow.”
Benji
After confirming to Millington that she had followed his instructions, the dog could be heard ‘making quite a loud groan’ in the recording of the call, the prosecutor told the court. She added: “Mr Millington asked ‘did it go up his nose’. The defendant laughed and said ‘I think so’. She offered to do it again.”
Having heard Benji starting to cough, Millington asked Anderson if the noise was coming from the dog. Anderson replied: “Yeah that’s him. He hates smoking. You know what it’s like when I’m smoking, he starts sneezing.”
James Millington
Before the phone call ended, Millington spoke to Anderson about making Benji ingest cannabis again once he had been released from prison.
A veterinarian’s report read in court stated that dogs can fall over and ‘become unsteady’ from ingesting cannabis, while their pupils dilate similar to humans’.
The court heard Anderson had four previous criminal convictions, with the most recent coming earlier in 2022 for her part in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into HMP Doncaster, which also involves Millington, 31, of HMP Leeds.
Earlier in April 2022, Anderson was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for being concerned in the supply of Class B and C drugs into prison between 2017 and 2020, conspiring to supply Class B drugs into prison and conspiring to convey List B articles into prison.
Anderson was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal following a trial. She appeared at Stockport Magistrates Court via video link from New Hall prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
Sentencing | four-week prison sentence to run concurrently with her existing jail term; ordered to pay a total of £428 in costs and charges. Disqualified from owning or keeping an animal for 10 years.
CONVICTED (2018) | Barry David Shaw, born 25/08/1983, most recently (2021) of Gladys Avenue, Portsmouth – brutally kicked a chihuahua puppy in a fit of rage, leaving her with missing teeth, bloodshot eyes and bruising
The animal cruelty charge against Shaw – a career criminal with family links to Stockport – was proven in his absence.
Tiny chihuahua Coco suffered near fatal injuries in the vicious attack by lifelong loser Barry Shaw
RSPCA Inspector Andrew Kirby, who investigated the incident, said:
‘This was a horribly sad case where poor Coco was left with serious injuries.
‘She was near to death when she was taken to an emergency vet in a collapsed state with missing teeth, bloodshot eyes, and bruising.
‘Shaw admitted in interview he’d lost his temper with Coco after her owner left him alone with her while they nipped out.
‘When the owner returned they discovered what had happened to Coco and rushed her for treatment with a vet.
‘There is no excuse for subjecting an innocent animal to such violence.
‘It is very lucky that Coco’s tiny body survived such an horrendous attack.’
Sentence: 16 weeks in jail. Banned from keeping or owning any animals for just 12 months (expired July 2019).
CONVICTED (2017) | Joanne ‘Jojo’ Brown, born 8 May 1984, most recent known address (2018) Winterburn Green, Offerton Estate, Stockport SK2 5PG – abandoned her cat in an empty house for five weeks
Joanne Brown left her cat alone in an abandoned property
Brown was sentenced at Stockport Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 21 December 2017. She pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to the cat, known as Tinkerbell, at an earlier hearing.
Tinkerbell was barely alive when rescued by the RSPCA.
The court heard that Tinkerbell was rescued from a house in Primrose Avenue, in Marple, Stockport, by a neighbour and a member of Brown’s family who became concerned for the cat’s welfare.
Tinkerbell was unresponsive and was covered in scabs and sores. She was taken to the RSPCA’s Greater Manchester Hospital, where staff worked tirelessly to save her life.
She has since recovered in the care of the RSPCA.
RSPCA inspector Heather Morris, who investigated, said: “Tinkerbell was extremely emaciated, dehydrated and anaemic – she was at death’s door. If she’d been in that house for another 24 hours she would have died.
“Tinkerbell had been abandoned for five weeks inside a house which was covered in faeces. There was no food for her so we can only assume that she spent weeks scavenging for food in the property.
“It really was touch-and-go as to whether she would survive, but she slowly started to improve after a month. It was a long process but she has recovered very well and has since been happily rehomed.”
Sentence: 12-month conditional discharge, ordered to pay £250 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.
Source: RSPCA News (article removed)
2019 Update
Joanne Brown has a new kitten – pictured.
Unfortunately, despite proving herself entirely incapable of caring for animals, she was never banned from keeping them.
CONVICTED (2017) | Lee William James, born 30/03/1986, of 49 Rayners Close, Stalybridge SK15 1TJ – abandoned snakes without food or water; 13 found dead
Lee James, a director of his family’s company Imperial Cutting Formes Ltd, was found guilty of letting a number of snakes die by leaving them for weeks without food and water.
The RSPCA was first alerted in January 2017 by the landlord of the unit on Gorsey Mount Street, near Stockport town centre, which James was renting to keep the animals.
They were housed in vivariums, and when inspectors eventually gained access a fortnight later they were greeted by a ‘strong and unpleasant stench’ coming from inside.
Horrified inspectors found 13 dead snakes in various stages of decomposition, some of which were so badly decomposed they were unrecognisable.
Three dead snakes were also found in a bin bag crawling with maggots.
Six live snakes were found, including a venomous viper snake, but they had no food or water and were all in ‘poor body condition,’ Anna McDonald prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA told magistrates.
The viper was seized by Stockport Council licensing officers. The other five, including two royal pythons, an Indian python and a reticulated python – the world’s longest snake – were seized by police and taken to be examined.
Nearly all were found to be suffering from malnutrition and dehydration, and one, a young royal python, died in the vets’ care.
James, who said he was a ‘self-taught’ keeper of snakes, told officers he was in the process of re-homing them.
But he said he was under a lot of stress as his father had been diagnosed with cancer and he had been running his business whilst he was unwell.
He admitted he’d last attended to the snakes before Christmas, probably in mid-December.
James pleaded guilty to one charge of causing unnecessary suffering to five snakes and three charges of failing to meet the needs of 10 snakes.
Sentencing: 140 hours of unpaid work; ordered to pay £1,484.92. Banned from keeping any reptiles for a period of five years (expired 2022).
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.
