Cat- killer’s appeal dismissed
Sentence for slitting animal’s throat not excessive or unfit, judges rule
A 21- year- old city man must serve his 20- month jail sentence for the sadistic killing of a cat during a sexual ritual nearly three years ago.
In dismissing the appeal by Steven Edward Alcorn on the sentence for cruelty to animals, the Alberta Court of Appeal said in its decision released on Monday “the appellant’s motive of self- gratification, the sadism inherent in his methodology and the degree of premeditation and planning involved call for a denunciatory and deterrent sentence.”
Alcorn had bought a cat via an online advertisement in 2012 under the guise of giving it a good home, but instead slit its throat and let it bleed to death while he and his then- girlfriend had sex on the floor of his garage.
The court said that in increasing the penalty from a maximum two years to five years imprisonment in 2008, Parliament recognized and intended that courts also recognize that cruelty to animals is incompatible with civilized society.
“For this offence, the wilful conduct is such that society would expect the courts to do what they can to discourage it within the bounds of proportionality,” wrote justices Jack Watson, Patricia Rowbotham and Russell Brown.
“In the end, we are not persuaded that the sentence imposed on the animal cruelty offence is excessive or unfit.”
Defence lawyer Luke Faught argued last month that the judge who handed Alcorn the 20- month term erred by placing too much weight on general deterrence, a sentencing principle that is meant to stop others from committing the same type of crime.
He said the crime was so repellent and rare that it was unnecessary for the judge to use the sentence to send a message to the wider public. Faught had argued for a lower sentence between 90 days and nine months.
Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz told the three- judge panel that the crime sprang from Alcorn’s desire to act out sexual fantasies, and can be considered a useful deterrent to others contemplating similar acts involving killing an animal for gratification.
Alcorn had also been handed three months consecutive for assaulting his girlfriend in December 2012 — three months after the cruelty offence — and one month for breaching release conditions, for a total sentence of 24 months.