Man who killed girlfriend's hamster given suspended sentence

Ryan Goodwin threw Sarah Symons's hamster and cage out of first-floor window during argument recorded in 999 call
  • The Guardian,
Ryan Goodwin
Ryan Goodwin with girlfriend Sarah Symons whose hamster he killed during a row. He has been given an eight-week suspended jail sentence. Photograph: David Wilcock/PA

A man who killed his girlfriend's hamster by throwing it out of a window during a row has been given an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Ryan Goodwin hurled the pet, called Kaya, in its cage from the first-floor window of his flat during an argument with Sarah Symons in January.

Symons was talking to police on her mobile phone at the time, and her horror was recorded.

Goodwin was sentenced at Plymouth magistrates court after admitting animal cruelty and being found guilty at an earlier trial of using threatening behaviour. District Judge Paul Farmer ordered Goodwin to pay £400 courrt costs and banned the 23-year-old from keeping animals for seven years, telling him: "If you had been sent to prison today you could have no complaint. What you did was disgraceful."

Goodwin, of Plymouth, arrived at court with Symons. The court heard they were reconciled and once again living together. Speaking outside the court after the hearing, Goodwin apologised and said: . "I am remorseful … it was in the heat of the moment. We are all in relationships and we do crazy things for love. And I do love her very much. It was a moment of madness."

He said the couple had not argued since moving back in together, and being banned from keeping animals would mean they would have to get rid of their dog, a Staffordshire/pitbull-crossbreed called Tyson.

"Tyson loves me, he will listen to me and no one else," he said. "Now we are being forced to get rid of him."

The court heard that after Symons, 20, returned to the flat to collect personal belongings during a break-up, the pair argued and Goodwin began throwing items out of the window as she watched from below.

Soo Jackson-Hall, prosecuting, said Goodwin had taunted Symons, dangling the cage containing the 10-week-old hamster, which he had previously threatened to feed to a friend's snake, out of the window so she could see it. "She was quite a distance away and he said 'here, catch this'. Then he counted 'three, two, one' and then dropped it," Jackson-Hall told the court.

The cage shattered on impact and the animal died from its injuries. When arrested, Goodwin told police he had thought the hamster would survive the fall.

The court heard that he received £800 a month in benefits, including disability living allowance because of a knee injury suffered two years ago, and that he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and episodes of "psychosis" for which he has been receiving help.

McKenzie Robinson, for Goodwin, told the court: "He is a reckless young man who has difficulty controlling his temper in fraught emotional situations."

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