Sadistic boyfriend who tortured cat jailed

Lewis Hudson would “punish” the defenceless creature including trapping it in a shower cubicle with the hot water running and shooting it with a ball bearing pistol.

While his girlfriend “was watching funny cat videos he said he had one on his telephone and showed footage of him stamping on the cat while wearing steel capped boots,” said Tom Challinor, prosecuting.

Hudson’s lengthy horrific campaign against the helpless cat, ‘Binx’, eventually ended with him battering it to death with a shovel in the shower.

Putting him behind bars for twenty seven months a judge said today (Wed), “It is alarming to observe you plainly have in you a taste for sadistic cruelty.”

Judge Brian Cummings, KC, told 23-year-old Hudson the charges he had admitted “represent what is frankly a sickening catalogue of cruelty towards a defenceless animal over a period of nearly eight months.

“It also caused, as it was intended to cause, extreme distress to the animal’s owner, your partner, Summer Leadbetter.”

Ms Leadbetter, who was accompanied by friends and relatives, sat sobbing in the public gallery during the hearing at Liverpool Crown Court.

Judge Cummings banned Lewis, of Crispin Road, Netherley, from keeping any animal for life.

He spoke of the “sheer seriousness and horror of what you did to the unfortunate animal in this case. It raised the greatest disquiet regarding your suitability ever to have any control still less ownership of any animal.

“It bothers me greatly what I have seen in this case.”

The judge described Hudson’s prolonged and repeated incidents of serious cruelty as “sadistic behaviour and said he had used “very significant force” and used a shower to “torture the creature.”

“You did some or all of this to get at Ms Leadbetter who in consequence suffered and continues to suffer considerably…..If things were not going your way you would get at her by harming her cat.”

He imposed a ten year restraining order to keep away from her and her Whiston home.

Hudson, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to two offences of animal cruelty and harassment.

Mr Challinor had told the court that the couple formed a relationship in early 2021 and they moved in together in Prescot. He eventually agreed she could have a cat and he was initially affectionate to Binx “but things changed and he started to be cruel towards it.

“She began to note injuries but put it down to accidents or infections. However in due course he admitted he had punched the animal because it had scratched the furniture.

“His attitude towards the cat deteriorated and he began punishing it for what he considered to be bad behaviour.”

Mr Challinor said he would put it in the shower cubicle and turn the water on about twice a week and when it tried to escape he would use his feet to get it back in.

“After a while he began to use hot water rather than cold water and would leave it in the cubicle for lengthy periods with the water running and the room would be full of steam.”

He said the cat would leave panting and in a distressed condition. In June last year while the couple were relaxing on their balcony and while she was watching a ‘funny cats video’ he said he had one on his phone and showed her him stamping on Binx while wearing steel capped boots. She described the cat as “screaming.”

Hudson said that was the sound the cat made when she was not there. A pattern developed where if he did not get his own way he would threaten to hurt the cat.

He rang once saying he had hurt it and when she rushed home she found he had trapped it in the shower cubicle with hot water running and the cat emerged exhausted.

She saw its back legs were not working properly and saw ball bearings on the bathroom floor. When confronted he said he had shot Binx with his BB gun.

She made plans to re-home her pet but Hudson blocked them as he feared injuries would be detected leading back to him which might frustrate his plans to get a dog.

Mr Challinor said the defendant’s behaviour got even worse with him dipping the bb pellets in cleaning fluid and hitting it with a mop containing bleach saying ‘hopefully it will kill her.’ In July last year he told her the cat was ‘f….ed’ and she got home to find its eyelids stuck together with blood and her fangs had snapped off and had a mouth full of blood. “He said he had struck her with the shower head and taken her teeth clean out.”

Matters came to a head on August 15 when he sent her abusive text messages threatening to hurt the cat because there was no food in the house.

He said he was going to whack it with a shovel and if she did not come home he would kill it. He later said the cat had ‘gone’ and when she got home she found her beloved cat dead in the shower with blood and faeces on the wall and floor.

A vet pathologist later found that Binx had suffered fractured ribs, one of which had penetrated her lung causing death. She had fractured teeth and abrasions and bruises.

When interviewed by police Hudson admitted disliking the cat and sending threatening messages but said they were just a joke. He said the day before he had lost his temper and kicked the cat and she hit the TV stand. He claimed he had not meant to hurt her and gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation.

The court heard that Ms Leadbetter had been seriously affected emotionally and had to leave her job as a nursery worker and described “not being able to function.”

John Rowan, defending, urged the judge not to jail Hudson saying that a probation report said he would benefit from intensive rehabilitation.

He said that Ms Leadbetter had described her relationship with Hudson as good apart from his behaviour towards her cat.

Mr Rowan said that his coercive behaviour was to try to get her to do what he said. “He is genuinely remorseful for his behaviour. He has always accepted being responsible for killing the cat.”

Hudson, who was exposed to “traumatic events in the family home” as a child, was otherwise a”upstanding decent member of the community.” He was not employed but was keen to get a job, said Mr Rowan.