Leeds mum who killed children's rabbit and 'laughed hysterically' is jailed
The woman admitted cruelty to children
A Leeds mum who stamped on and killed her children’s pet rabbit and laughed “hysterically” has been jailed.
She appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting a number of charges, including cruelty to children, in what a judge described as “an extremely sad case”.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect her children’s identities, was handed a 30-month jail sentence.
Prosecutor Michele Stuart-Lofthouse said the woman has two children with her ex partner from whom she had separated some years ago, largely due to her alcohol use.
The youngsters lived with her former partner, but she would later share custody.
She was diagnosed with a mental health condition and had suffered an incident which had exacerbated it.
The court heard that having picked up her children from school last year, she began shouting at them.
Witnesses saw them at a Leeds railway station where she was remonstrating with the crying children. She then tried to stop a woman getting past, catching her on the arm in the process.
She then threw her phone into the middle of the railway tracks, before climbing down to retrieve it as other waiting passengers looked on in horror with a train arrival imminent.
She was later arrested and bailed.
But a matter of weeks later, she began a campaign of messages and emails to her ex partner making threats and vile comments.
In September, she was seen unsteady on her feet through drink and stumbling towards her ex partner’s home. She kicked at his front door and was seen to then walk around the back.
Later, the children arrived home and found their pet rabbit was missing from its back-garden hutch. They went looking for the animal, thinking it had escaped.
The woman later rang her mother saying she had killed the rabbit. The worried mother then went to pick her up and found her with the rabbit in a carrier bag, and was laughing hysterically.
Her mother tried to take her to hospital but she refused to attend.
She was arrested again and held on remand.
The defendant has 10 previous convictions for 28 offences, including 16 for violence. She was already on a suspended sentence for being drunk in charge of a child, battery and three offences of assaults on emergency workers.
She admitted two counts of cruelty to children, assault to the woman at the railway station, harassment of her ex partner and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
Mitigating, Zarreen Alam-Cheetham described it as a “very sad case indeed”.
She added: “She suffers from impulsivity and a lack of consideration in respect of the consequences of her actions.
“She believes she deserves to be punished and must serve her prison sentence in full. She is living with extreme guilt.”
The defendant, who appeared in court over a video link from the prison, spent much of the hearing in tears.
Ms Allam-Cheetham said the woman had lived a “troubled life” but was now on a “cocktail” of medication.
Judge Kate Rayfield said he found her mental health conditions to be a contributing factor, and told her: “It’s an extremely sad case.
“I accept you are genuinely remorseful and feel shame and extreme guilt.”
As well as the jail sentence, the woman was given a lifelong restraining order to keep her away from her ex partner.