A man who stabbed his mother’s pet dog to death with a screwdriver in Dundee has been banned from keeping animals for 33 months.
Bradley Simpson, 24, left pools of blood in the house after the savage attack.
The charred remains of Buddy the German Shepherd were later found in a shallow grave.
Simpson formed part of the search party after Buddy was reported missing, before telling his mother: “You will never see him again. I’ve killed him.”
Dundee Sheriff Court was told Simpson had become psychotic after taking drugs before carrying out the fatal attack on the innocent dog.
The search came to an end when a horrified dog walker found Buddy’s badly-burned body partially buried in the grounds of Linlathen park.
Sentencing explanation
As he was finally sentenced following months of delay while reports were prepared, Sheriff John Rafferty told Simpson: “I want to make it absolutely clear that the charge you pled guilty to was extremely serious and aggravated by multiple bail aggravations.
“The only reason there is no punishment element to your sentence is because you have already spent the equivalent of 14 months in custody on remand.”
The dog killer had previously complained he had become “a target” in prison.
Simpson was disqualified from owning or keeping any animal for a period of 33 months and placed under social work supervision for three years.
Simpson admitted carrying out the killing at his family home in Dundee on April 1 this year.
The court heard he had been freed five times on bail prior to the attack.
He admitted causing a protected animal unnecessary suffering by repeatedly stabbing it with a screwdriver in the city’s Honeygreen Road and Linlathen Park.
A not guilty plea to burning and dumping the dog in the park to conceal his crime was accepted by the Crown.
Netflix confession
Buddy – which belonged to the accused’s mother Maureen Murdoch – had been in the family home when they went to bed but was missing the next morning.
An alert was posted for the missing animal on a locally-targeted social media site and a search was carried out by a number of people.
Witnesses were walking in Linlathen park when they saw a fire but they initially thought nothing of it as fires were a regular occurrence in the area.
Meanwhile, Mrs Murdoch saw a pool of blood at the door of her home and splashes of blood within the living room and kitchen area.
When she went outside to investigate further she saw more blood spattering on the side of the house.
Simpson was quizzed about what had happened and made comments about killing the dog and telling his family they would never see him again.
He later spoke about being inspired to carry out the horrific slaying of the family pet after watching a Netflix series based around rescue dogs.
Psychosis after drug-taking
It emerged witnesses in the park saw a scorched patch of ground close to a mound of disturbed soil which looked like it had been recently dug.
When the mound was scraped back it revealed the charred remains of a dog, which was subsequently confirmed to be missing Buddy.
Simpson, from St Andrews, had been granted bail on 22 June 2020, and 14 February, 21 February, 23 March and 31 March this year. The last one was hours before the killing.
Solicitor Theo Finlay, defending, told the court: “Plainly it is his view there was a drug-induced psychosis.
“Today he is more coherent than he has been.
“He is not a habitual drug user but he became involved in some misuse in the last few months and it has had a pretty catastrophic effect on him mentally.”
Simpson has a number of previous convictions, including for domestic abuse, under-age sex offending, theft and assault to permanent disfigurement.
