Adam Wardle: South Yorkshire man caught on CCTV attacking dog with mop handle is given 10-year ban

Adam Wardle, of Bondfield Crescent, Barnsley, was caught on CCTV punching and kicking the three-year-old tan mastiff cross, called Bobby, before continuing his cowardly attack by using a mop handle to beat the dog. The 23-year-old has been banned from keeping animals for 10 years after he admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the dog under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Wardle appeared for sentencing at Barnsley Magistrates’ Court, which heard how the dog had thankfully escaped serious injuries but a vet found he had sustained grazes, bruises and a bloodshot eye from the beating beside a bin store outside Wardle’s former flat at Holden Court in Barnsley.

In a witness statement, RSPCA inspector Vannessa Reid said postal workers reported seeing the dog being beaten outside the property on April 25 this year and they had spotted a man walking away. After discovering the incident matched a report to the charity by South Yorkshire Police, the inspector went to an assisted accommodation block, where a housing officer went through CCTV footage recorded by a camera opposite Wardle’s flat.

Inspector Reid accompanied a police officer to Wardle’s home, where he admitted the attack and when asked why he had done it, replied: “He (Bobby) toileted inside and I got angry. Then he did it again and I got doubly angry and that’s what you’ve seen.” Bobby was collected later from the property of a friend of the defendant, where Wardle claimed he’d taken the dog ‘for his own safety’.

The inspector took Bobby to a vets where he was checked out and treated with painkillers. A vet stated in his expert report that he found several bruises to the dog’s face, elbows and hocks, while Bobby also had a small cut on his left eye. In mitigation, the court was told the defendant had not received his medication and, finding himself ‘in a dark place’, took it out on the dog. It was said Wardle was ‘thoroughly ashamed’ of his actions and had swiftly signed the dog over into the care of the RSPCA.

Sentencing Wardle on October 11, magistrates told him the prolonged attack was a ‘horrendous’ offence. As well as the ban, they placed him under a community order for 12 months with a requirement that he completes 20 rehabilitation activity days and 240 hours of unpaid work. The defendant, who no longer lives at the address where the attack took place, was also told to pay costs of £400 and a victim surcharge of £95. Bobby has remained in the care of the RSPCA and will be rehomed.