Drunken teenager smashed pet tortoise to pieces with a baseball bat

A drunk teenager smashed a tortoise to pieces with a baseball bat, a court heard. Daniel Winspear, 18, smashed the defenceless creature in a sickening attack at a house party.

Winspear was found in the conservatory still holding the bat, and the tortoise dismembered after party-goers heard noises in the early hours. The case has been described by RSPCA inspector Graeme Foggin as "shocking".

Tests proved the pet, which is an endangered species, did not die from it's injuries straight away. Winspear launched the attack after being invited to a party organised by a teenage boy while his parents were on holiday.



The owners of the house in Merganser Road, Bishop Cuthbert, Hartlepool, were away at the time and were stunned to be told of the attack by telephone. Stepdad James Ball, 51, said: "It was my pet and I was on holiday at the time when I got the phone call to say the tortoise had been tortured.

"I came home right away. I was absolutely flabbergasted and totally distraught that someone could do this."

Winspear was warned he could face jail after admitting to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal when he appeared before Hartlepool Magistrates' Court.