Blackpool man jailed after killing cat by dropping concrete slab on its head to 'put it out of its misery'

Carl Dyson, 40, of Belmont Avenue, admitted killing the black and white long-haired cat, called Paddy, at an address on Salthouse Avenue on October 23 last year.

At his sentencing at Blackpool Magistrates' Court today, the court heard how Dyson had been seen by a neighbour carrying the black cat, wrapped in a pink towel, into his friend's back garden, where he placed a concrete slab the size of a laptop twice on the animal's head.

Paul Ridehalgh, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said the witness "saw Dyson drop a slab as thick as a laptop on the cat's head as it lay in the yard", and added: "She saw the cat try and escape from the blanket before Dyson did the same thing again.

"It was clearly deliberate. It was an inhuman act.”

The neighbour called the RSPCA, and an inspector visited the address.

Mr Ridehalgh said: "The inspector observer a black and white plastic cat carrier that appeared to have blood on it. Inside he found the body of a black and white cat.

"The cat appeared to have suffered massive injuries to her head, as it was crushed on one side, with its eye bulging.

"The defendant said he believed the cat may have been hit by a car."

After telling Paddy's owner, Anthony Johnson, what had happened, the cat's body was taken away for further inspection.

Mr Ridehalgh said: "The cat had suffered traumatic injuries to its head. The conclusion was that these injuries were caused by forceful, violent compression of the cat's head. The death could have been very quick.

"The cat could have been suffering from some cancerous lumps in the head area. Vets also examined the cat and found it to be in a poor condition, it was severely underweight with fleas jumping off her. The fur was matted and covered in faeces.

"The cat's head had clearly been crushed. The vet's opinion was that the cat's injuries were unsurvivable. In her opinion, the cat's death would have certainly caused suffering... the dropping of a concrete slab on a cat is not an acceptable method of euthanasia, and any reasonable person would have taken the cat to a vet."

The court heard that Dyson had first come across the cat that day, when he attended Mr Johnson's property where he was supposed to move in, and had decided to 'put it out of its misery'.

Gary McAnulty, defending, said: "This cat really was in a poor condition and that's the cat this defendant has come across. He has seen blood in the kitchen and thinks perhaps it has been hit by a car, and hes concerned that his friend, the owner of the cat, might get into trouble because the cat had clearly been suffering for a long period of time."

He added: "He dropped the slab on the cat's head, and he states that the cat was killed immediately.

"Any suffering would have been for a matter of seconds and no more than a minute.

"He was suffering at the time with some mental health problems, anxiety and depression. He made a full admission of what he had done."

Sentencing Dyson to 12 weeks in prison, magistrate Ed Beaman said: "The cat was trying to escape the blanket and was not so ill as to be accepting of its fate.

"There's evidence that the cat was distressed while in the blanket prior to the first impact. We believe the cat was still alive prior to the second impact, and this caused distress to both the cat and the witnesses who saw the offence."

Dyson was banned from owning, keeping or managing animals indefinitely, to be reviewed after one year. He was also ordered to pay £80 in court costs and a £120 victims surcharge.

* Dyson launched his appeal an hour after being convicted and was granted bail.

Magistrates were told by his lawyer Gary McAnulty he believed his prison sentence should have been suspended.

“Unless he is bailed pending that appeal, he faces doing his full sentence before Preston Crown Court can hear that appeal,” he said.