GUILTY PLEA | 

Man faces year in jail for attacking dog with iron bar and leaving it to die in a ditch

Adam Watt entered a guilty plea to causing unnecessary suffering to Diesel, a black crossbreed dog

Today at 07:16

This is the Belfast man facing up to a year behind bars and a £20,000 fine after he whacked a dog over the head with an iron bar and left it in a ditch to die.

At Ballymena Magistrates Court, Adam Watt, from Dundela Avenue in east Belfast, entered a guilty plea to causing unnecessary suffering to Diesel, a black crossbreed dog, on August 24 last year.

Following the eleventh hour dock confession, District Judge Nigel Broderick adjourned passing sentence for six weeks until the probation board have compiled a pre-sentence report.

Freeing the would-be dog killer on bail, the judge ordered him to come back to court on May 8.

Previously, Watt had claimed he could not attend court in Ballymena because of an alleged paramilitary threat against him after he “received a beating from the UDA in 2018”, but a judge concluded there was no such immediate threat to life and ordered Watt to attend or face an arrest warrant.

As he left court last week, Watt hurled abuse at his co-accused, 19-year-old John Little, who had just been sentenced for the same offence.

When the pair were initially charged the court heard that each was blaming the other but last January Little, from Torr Gardens in Larne, was the first to plead guilty.

While Watt blamed him for striking the dog, the court heard then that Little, who was looking after Diesel for Watt, laid the blame squarely at the door of Watt.

On Wednesday a prosecuting lawyer told the court that when Little couldn’t keep the dog anymore, Watt told him to bring Diesel to meet him at a property on the Glenarm Road, close to the Inver River.

“It was agreed that Watt was not going to take the dog but was going to kill it,” said the lawyer, adding that it was Watt who “struck it on the head with an iron bar”.

Diesel was thrown into a ditch where he lay for three days before he was found and following emergency treatment, he made a “full recovery” and has since been rehomed to a loving family.

​Lodging a plea in mitigation on behalf of Little, defence counsel Neil Moore emphasised the teenager had played a secondary role in the sickening attack while the pre-sentence report evidenced that he was filled with “genuine remorse” for his actions.

Judge Broderick said given Little’s youth, his clear record and the fact that he “played a lesser role” in what he described as a “very serious offence,” he was imposing a 180-hour community service order.

In addition Little was banned from keeping, owning or having any animal for 20 years and he was also ordered to pay a total of £807 towards court and council costs.