Teenage boy, 15, fined £500 for kicking ‘much-loved’ pet dog to death

<em>A teenager has been fined £500 for kicking Staffordshire bull terrier Teddy to death (Handout)</em>
A teenager has been fined £500 for kicking Staffordshire bull terrier Teddy to death (Handout)

A teenage boy has been fined £500 for beating an elderly woman’s pet dog to death in a ‘prolonged attack’.

The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, punched and kicked ‘much-loved’ Staffordshire bull terrier Teddy during the attack in St Ives, Cornwall, in October last year.

The dog suffered a fractured skull and multiple blunt force trauma injuries to his head, neck and torso which resulted in internal bleeding.

The incident happened when Teddy held down a pet terrier belonging to the family of the convicted boy who had a ‘total loss of control’.

Justice Diana Baker said domestic violence has ‘severely affected’ the boy’s emotional wellbeing.

Sentencing the teenager at Truro Magistrates’ Court, she told him: ‘You are a young man who has lived with domestic violence for a long time.

<em>The boy was found guilty at Truro Magistrates’ Court (Court Finder)</em>
The boy was found guilty at Truro Magistrates’ Court (Court Finder)

‘Domestic violence under the influence of alcohol that has severely affected your emotional wellbeing and ability to deal with stressful situations.’

Teddy’s owner Jacqueline Stevens, 71, said in an impact statement read to the court: ‘My life has been ripped apart and has been changed forever.’

She explained how she had hand-reared the Staffordshire bull terrier and kept him for nine years and said that she now ‘dreads going to St Ives’ due to the ‘sad associations and memories’.

Paying tribute to the witness who gave evidence, RSPCA inspector Jon Phipps said: ‘It was clear how traumatised they were, and indeed, still are about what they saw that day but without their help, this case could never have come to court and there would be no justice for Teddy.’

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The teenager was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and has been banned from keeping animals for five years and ordered to pay £500 compensation.

He was sentenced to an 18-month rehabilitation order with 18 months of supervision and was also given an eight-week curfew.

His mother will pay the £500 fine at a rate of £50 a week.

While the boy will not be allowed to apply for the ban on him keeping animals to be lifted for the next three years, the family would be able to keep their pet terrier.