Sick video teenagers ordered to do community service

and put in the care of the Scottish SPCA, but the charity’s vets had no choice but to put her to sleep.

Hundreds of animal lovers left comments on Doherty’s video condemning her and Kane for their cruelty.

Doherty and Kane pled guilty at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to causing Esmerelda unnecessary suffering.

Doherty admitted spinning and throwing the snake, while Kane admitted throwing her, contrary to the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act. Both the girls are first offenders.

At sentencing yesterday, Sheriff Gary Aitken told the pair their actions were a result of drunkenness rather than “a character defect” but that was no excuse.

He said he had very little sympathy for Doherty, who had chosen to put the video online “to show off to everybody else”. He told her: “If you want to live your life through social media you will have to live with what comes from that.”

The sheriff ordered Doherty to do 120 hours of unpaid work, and Kane 80 hours. He told them to “get on with it” and to never find themselves in court again for “something of this nature”.

The court heard Doherty had lost her job as “a direct consequence” of her cruelty and was now “apologetic, embarrassed and ashamed”.

Kane accepted her behaviour was inappropriate but claimed she had been so drunk she thought that the snake was not real.

Her solicitor, Iain McGregor, said she picked it up for that reason and threw it away when it “hissed at her”.

Scottish SPCA chief inspector John Carle said later that he was disappointed the pair had not been banned from keeping animals.

He added: “Treating any animal this way is despicable behaviour and the injuries caused ultimately led to the death of the poor snake.”