Woman threw ex-partner’s dog into ditch during ‘difficult time’, court hears

A man has pleaded guilty at Great Yarmouth Magistrates' Court to charges of voyeurism PHOTO: Google Streetview (Image: Archant)

Amelia Murillo, 23, of Ordnance Road in Great Yarmouth, appeared at the town’s Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (October 22) where she admitted deliberately throwing a dog towards water with the intention of abandoning it.

Mark Jackson, prosecuting, told the court Ms Murillo’s former partner had bought the dog - a Labrador Staffy cross named Shadow - the year before.

After the couple split up, the partner left the dog behind and Ms Murillo tried to sell it on Facebook.

The dog was first taken by a family who already had some animals but it did not settle in and was returned to Ms Murillo.

A second family also had issues with rehousing the dog - and Ms Murillo told police it had bitten a woman, the court heard.

Rob Barley, mitigating, told the court that on April 17 this year, his client had collected the dog from the second family and was returning home feeling “upset and angry” when she picked the dog up by the scruff of the neck “in a momentary fit of frustration” and threw it towards some bushes.

She told police the dog did not go into any dykes or ditch and that it came out, “showing no sign of harm”, before a man intervened, Mr Barley said.

He added: “It wasn’t a deliberate attempt to cause suffering.

“It was an isolated incident arising out of a difficult time. It wasn’t a long passage of neglect.”

Ms Murillo has no previous convictions.

The magistrates fined her £439 and disqualified her from owning or keeping any animal for 30 months.

She was also ordered her to pay costs of £105, as well as a victim surcharge of £95.

The court heard that the dog, which also contained an element of pitbull, has been put down.