No discharge over killing

Wellington: A man who killed his partner’s miniature poodle by whacking its head against the floor said the traumatic death was an ‘‘accident’’.

The attack left the small dog with skull fractures, spinal damage and fractured ribs and would have caused it ‘‘severe and acute suffering and distress’’ before it died, Judge Arthur Tompkins said.

Simeon Jackson appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court yesterday seeking to avoid conviction for the killing, which happened in December 2020.

But Judge Tompkins declined his application for discharge without conviction.

Instead, he sentenced Jackson to six months’ community detention, disqualified him from owning an animal for five years and ordered him to pay $273 reparation for vet bills. —