NOTTINGHAMSHIRE MAN JAILED AFTER STABBING DOGS TO DEATH DURING 'MENTAL EPISODE'
A 45-year-old Nottinghamshire man killed a dog when he stabbed it through its heart.Nottingham Crown Court heard how Simon Elliott also repeatedly stabbed a second pet after both were left in his care by friends who trusted him while they went on holiday.
A neighbour who entered the defendant’s property found Rosie the beagle “stiff and cold” as well as the other pet - a Staffie called Sabre - with a number of wounds.
The scene inside his flat was described as “abhorrent and barbaric”.
The police arrived and the neighbour described the scene as ‘abhorrent, barbaric and extremely upsetting'.
One of the dogs had been stabbed and the knife had penetrated the heart while the other had been stabbed multiple times.
Sending him to prison for 18 months, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “Only you will know how clearly you remember what happened.
You knew you had mental health issues and you knew you had been on (an alcohol) binge.
You were an accident waiting to happen and all you had to say to (the victims) was ‘I am sorry, I can’t look after the dogs’.
It is difficult to say if you attacked both of these dogs during the same episode.
Dogs, like human beings, have instincts and Sabre would undoubtedly be scarred by what it saw.” Elliott, of Scargill Rise, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
She has previous “alcohol-related” convictions.
Jabeen Akhtar, mitigating, said her client was “going through a psychotic episode at the time” he stabbed the animals.
In her letter, Elliott expressed remorse and explained he was suffering a mental episode.
She said: “In his letter he says ‘I would like to express how sorry I am.
I have previously looked after the dogs on numerous occasions as the owners were friends of mine for many years and I have lost that friendship.
I had problems with alcohol and I am truly sorry for what I did.'” As well as the jail term, the judge banned the defendant from keeping any animal for 10 years.
