Cat Killer caged | 

Man who kicked cat to death ‘living like hermit’ while under death threat

It was initially thought the cat had been hit by a car given the extent of its injuries

Yesterday at 18:47

A man who kicked a neighbour’s cat to death is living “almost as a hermit” under vigilante death threats, a court has heard.

Coleraine Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, heard that 44-year-old cat killer Mark Carson had been sent an anonymous death threat letter and that “he has to leave his own home for his own safety”.

The court also heard that almost 500 of his neighbours at Maythorn Avenue and surrounding houses had signed a letter of petition calling for him to be “made an example”.

Speaking as he jailed Carson for three months on Friday, District Judge Peter King revealed he had been given the letter, undersigned by some 470 people, which outlined how “everyone in our estate is stressed and disgusted with this killing – we do not need this person in our community”.

The judge quoted: “We hope that you would make an example of this terrible act by giving a custodial sentence.”

He warned, however, that “while I would have been astounded if there had not been community interest in this case…in respect of what actions sinister people not before the court may be taking in respect of you and your family at home that, quite frankly, is deplorable.”

When Carson entered a guilty plea earlier this year to causing Jasper the cat unnecessary suffering arising from a shocking incident of cruelty on March 24, 2020, DJ King warned him that a potential jail sentence was on the horizon.

A prosecuting lawyer had outlined how a member of the public discovered badly injured Jasper at the rear of a house on Maythorn Avenue in Coleraine and brought it to the vet who, having examined the ginger cat, believed that given his injuries “he appeared to have been injured in a road traffic collision”.

However, when the Good Samaritan animal lover checked CCTV footage at the rear of the houses, they spotted their neighbour Carson booting the elderly cat “approximately seven times”.

“Footage provided to the council shows the attack and it’s what we would describe as sustained with the first kick making the cat travel several feet,” said the prosecution.

“It is unable to rise yet it is kicked or launched by Mr Carson’s boot at least six more times and the cat is left at the back of the property,” the lawyer told the court, adding that although Carson comes back out a few minutes later and is seen “flipping it over with his foot”, the 44-year-old does nothing to help or assist the still breathing but fatally injured cat and simply walks back into his house.

The vet who treated Jasper did an autopsy and they found he had badly bruised ribs, fresh blood in his abdomen and thorax and a collapsed lung”, concluding that death was due to a “traumatic injury and that the cat would have suffered”.

When Jasper’s owner was traced she gave a statement “detailing her heartbreak and anger at the treatment of her elderly cat” and when Carson was spoken to, “he made full admissions”.

DJ King also read out Carson’s letter in open court, quoting the cat killer as writing “I want to take this opportunity to apologise for my actions – I am truly very sorry”.

“It was never my intention to hurt Jasper…

I immediately felt terrible and I’m still haunted to this day by my actions.

“I have struggled with it ever since and I am disgusted at myself and do not expect forgiveness.”

In addition to the three-month jail sentence, Carson was also banned from having custody or control of any animal for 10 years but no costs were awarded against the cat killer.

While DJ King ordered prison staff to “take him down”, Carson was freed on £500 bail pending an appeal of the jail sentence.