Cat torturer is jailed for six months

A MAN who tortured a cat in a cellar until it was close to death was yesterday jailed for six months and banned from keeping animals for life.

Ivor Smith, 30, snatched the fully-grown tabby from the street and tortured it in the cellar of his digs in East Street, Worcester.

But he was filmed on video by an undercover investigator, Graham Hall, 36, of UK Animal Watch, who had tempted Smith into friendship, magistrates at Worcester were told.

Yesterday they watched the seven-minute long video before passing sentence on Smith, who admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a cat by torture. They saw him hold the cat by the tail and repeatedly kick it. Then he got a ferret to bite its head by holding the animals face to face.

Kerry Moreton, for the prosecution, said Mr Hall later took the dying animal to a vet but it died 11 hours later from shock, and head and internal injuries.

Miss Moreton said a claim made by Smith to police that he was drunk was false.

'He was lucid on the video and fully appreciated what was going on. He enjoyed it.'