London - A British pilot drowned his neighbour’s dog in a bucket because he was fed up with hearing it barking from “morning until night”.
Stephen Woodhouse, 52, lost his temper as he mowed his lawn and grabbed Meg the border terrier.
After killing the pet – which had been bought as a companion for his neighbour’s disabled daughter who died aged 10 - he dumped its corpse under a hedge.
Fearing the animal’s body might be tracked, he later returned and cut Meg’s microchip out of her neck and moved the dog’s body to another hedge.
The Flybe pilot, who was on Thursday sentenced to 12 weeks in jail, suspended for two years, later told police: “I reached my wits’ end. All I could think of was that the noise had to stop. It was driving me bloody mad. I walked across my paddock, up to their fence, and the dog was about five metres away.
“All I had to do was whistle and it trotted over. When it got to the fence, I picked it up and walked back across my paddock. There was some building work being done and a big bucket of water, so I stuck it in the bucket until it stopped moving. I never thought of the consequences.”
Woodhouse had lived next to Meg’s owners – Alison, 48, and Alan Boddington, 50 – in Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, for several years. Meg was the pet of their young daughter Lauren, who died after an asthma attack.
The couple said the dog had been one of the only living memories of their late daughter.
When the Boddingtons reported 10-year-old Meg missing, dozens of villagers began searching for the little dog.
But the terrier’s fate was only revealed when a suspicious Mrs Boddington searched the boot of Woodhouse’s car. She found a rope and dog hair and alerted the police.
Mr Boddington said: “We got Meg as an eight-week-old puppy for our daughter, who was special needs, as a little companion and obviously she became a very important part of our family.
“We have got lots of memories of Lauren and Meg together and it has traumatised us.
“Meg had such a lovely nature. If Lauren was poorly, Meg would lay by her cot. She was just a very kind, sweet-natured dog.”
Kevin McCole, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, told Corby magistrates’ court about the grim series of events last summer. He said: “On July 26, at about 12.30pm, Mrs Boddington realised that Meg was gone from the garden and spent a few hours looking for her.
“She approached Woodhouse in his paddock, and he denied that he had seen Meg at that time. Mrs Boddington had her suspicions raised by his reaction, and she went back to see him without success.
“On one occasion, she opened the boot of his car and found dog hair and a rope, and then the police became involved.”
The court heard that Woodhouse had driven to the nearby village of Buckby Wharf and thrown Meg’s body, hidden in a bag, into a hedgerow, before later moving it. He told police: “I’d been told that the dog had a chip so I took a craft knife to try to remove it and I cut the back of the dead dog’s neck open.
“In hindsight, I needn’t have bothered. I couldn’t find anywhere to put the dog so I drove to Ashby St Ledgers and disposed of it in another hedgerow.
“I can’t believe I have caused a nice family so much suffering and grief.”
Defending, Sara-Lise Hawe said Woodhouse had recently suffered a heart attack and was still recovering at the time. She said the dog had ‘barked from morning until night’.
Mrs Hawe added: “He found it impossible to be in his garden. Mr Woodhouse is not a man who likes to complain but he had spoken to the council and he was at his wits’ end.
“It was a momentary lapse of sanity with long-term consequences that left a village divided.”
Magistrate Jane Eayrs told Woodhouse: “You took the law into your own hands and drowned your neighbour’s dog. The suffering was such that it resulted in the dog’s death.”
She said she took into account Woodhouse’s early guilty plea when sentencing him.
The pilot refused to comment as he walked free from court. As he left, members of a Justice For Meg group shouted “criminal”.
The group’s founder Anita Twigger, 47, said locals had spent five days searching for Meg.
Mrs Twigger, who runs an animal rescue centre, said: “In court I felt sick and I wanted to cry.
“This is one of the worst I have seen. The dog would have suffered there is no doubt.”
She added: “Should this man really be flying an airplane?”
A friend of Woodhouse’s daughter said: “He hated pets and kids. Nobody likes him.
“In the entirety of the old village you couldn’t find anyone that would say a good word about him.”
Flybe said on Thursday night that Woodhouse had been suspended pending an investigation.
Daily Mail