Witnesses recoiled in horror as a Perth teenager struck a horse with a stone, the city’s sheriff court heard.
As an accomplice enticed the animal closer with the offer of food, Nico Pettigrew flung his missile, striking it a heavy blow in the chest.
The unemployed teenager had been noisily joking around with his female friend as they stood by a field in Mayfield Road, Scone, in the dead of night just prior to the attack.
It was viewed with disgust by husband and wife Ronnie and Hilda Cochrane, whose house overlooks the field.
Mr Cochrane said they had first seen the 17-year-old punch the horse in the head, causing it to shy back, before a second, more serious assault took place.
“The first time the horse was not too bothered as it just seemed to be shocked and it quickly ran off down the field,” he said.
“The girl tried to entice it back again with a handful of grass and although it was wary it gradually approached again.”
As it did so, the witness said he had seen Pettigrew pick up a stone and launch it at the horse. Mr Cochrane said he had gone to check on the horse the following day and had found it had a bruise on its chest that was still bleeding.
Giving evidence himself, Pettigrew denied having intentionally struck the horse with the stone, claiming the witnesses were mistaken and that the stone he threw had simply struck a fence-post.
He also denied having punched the animal and a second charge of smashing a bus shelter as he fled the scene. He claimed his intention had simply been to hit a tree behind the shelter.
Pettigrew, of Crieff Road, was found guilty of a charge that on June 19 last year he did, while acting with another, conduct himself in a disorderly manner, throw a stone at a horse, striking it on the body, punched a horse and committed a breach of the peace.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher also found Pettigrew guilty of second charge of maliciously smashing the glass panel of a bus shelter on Scone Road on the same evening.
He will return to court for sentencing on May 1.