Unemployed cleaner, 21, killed kitten by punching it four times in the face and poked another in the eye

UNITED KINGDOM -- An unemployed cleaner killed a kitten by punching it repeatedly in the face, the leaving it for days to starve to death, a court heard.

Robert Cashmore, 21, broke the jaw of the defencless animal, called Bobby, leaving it unable to eat, Birmingham Magistrates court was told.



Kitten killer: Robert Cashmore, 21, punched
five-week old Bobby the kitten, leaving him
unable to eat for days while he starved to death

The injury left the five-week old pet unable to eat, leading to its slow, painful starvation, magistrates heard.

Cashmore also admitted poking another kitten in the eye while it was in his care last year, magistrates found.

The drive cleaner, from Edgbaston in Birmingham, was convicted of two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to the animals.

He admitted the charges, accepting that he had failed to find medical help for the animals, but had denied he attacked Bobby.



RSPCA investigators produced this image of Bobby the kitten after he died

However, magistrates found that he did, in fact, attack the kitten.

A woman, Cashmore's former partner Charlotte Coombes, 18, was also convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to Bobby.

At the hearing, Cashmore was told by the bench: 'Your evidence was not credible. We find as a matter of fact you did punch him (Bobby) four times. You are guilty of causing unnecessary suffering.'

Giving evidence in his defence, Cashmore initially claimed Bobby had been injured after falling on to a pair of hair clippers.

Yet in an interview with an RSPCA officer he said he had stepped on Bobby, before finally admitting that he punched the kitten.

Asked why he changed his account under cross examination, Cashmore said: 'I only said what I said because I had not been accused of anything like this before. I just wanted to get the RSPCA agent out of my flat.

'I didn’t punch him four times, I only said that because I thought I was doing the right thing by making up a truth.”



Charlotte Coombes, 18, a former
partner of Cashmore, admitted one count

Five-week old Bobby was found dead in a basket at Cashmore’s flat last August by an RSPCA inspector alerted by an anonymous tip-off.

At an earlier hearing Rafe Turner, prosecuting, said the kitten had a festering wound to its lower jaw.

'This kitten had suffered a substantial injury to its jaw and that had caused its demise,” he said.

Mr Turner said the kitten would have been left unable to eat because of its injuries and had probably suffered for days before succumbing to starvation.

Cashmore and Coombes will be sentenced on July 18.

(Daily Mail - June 19, 2014)