Magistrate cuts dog basher's sentence after hate mail

[pies4ever]

Magistrate cuts dog basher's sentence after hate mail
August 29, 2007

A MAN who kicked a puppy almost to death has had his jail sentence halved because of hate mail from animal lovers.

Magistrate Len Brear sentenced Benjamin Gerrey, 27, to six months' jail for his drunken attack on his doberman puppy, Mishka.

But Mr Brear suspended three months of the sentence because Gerrey had been "bullied" by dog lovers.

He said the flow of venomous letters, e-mails and phone calls to Ringwood Magistrates' Court and Gerrey's family bordered on contempt.

Mr Brear said the hate mail began after coverage of the hearing six weeks ago, at which Gerrey was convicted of two cruelty charges and banned from owning a pet for five years.

"People who write these letters are bullies. More often than not they are sick in the head," he said.

"Such communications are contemptuous of the court. It may border on an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

"The court condemns this sort of communication."

Mishka is still traumatised 18 months after the attack and is kept behind bars at the RSPCA Burwood headquarters. She is physically fit, but not psychologically ready yet to put her trust in people.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22324817-2862,00.html

[Syd_Magpies_Girl]

This magistrate is a moron.

My dog was kicked in the head by one of our stupid neighbours when he was a pup, now he won't let any strangers pat his head, he just starts yelping and crying. We're still trying to get the prick charged as there were about 12 witnesses in our street who saw it happen.

[spoljar]

Bloody Discrace. Great message to send out to all the "tough" people in this world who want to vent their anger on poor animals.

People that are cruel to animals tend to be very nasty people overal. I believe research has shown that many criminals, were very cruel to animals in their younger years.

Hence why I teach my son to love and appreaciate all animals that are on this earth and to never, ever be nasty to them.

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

Am I missing something here? A man convicted for almost kicking a puppy to death gets half of his jail sentence suspended because of hate mail he received from dog lovers. WTF???
The judge says that "these people" are bullies, oh that poor little dog basher. Who the hell is supposed to be on trial?

[~Madness~]

I can't even bring myself to watch this sort of thing on TV, let alone read it...saw the headline and was sickened. Animal cruelty is friggen low. They should be strung up.