A jilted boyfriend who sent his ex-partner a video of him showering her cat said he didn’t know cats were scared of water.
Glen Dempsey, 23, is accused of burgling Shauna Robbins’ home and later setting fire to the property after she dumped him in October last year.
He is alleged to have stolen the pet during the second of two burglaries at the flat in Brook Road, Walton in November.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Dempsey, of Earle Road, Wavertree, also closed a door on the cat’s head.
He has pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, but told the jury he did not mean to harm it.
Dempsey told the jury he didn’t believe he stole the cat, because he bought it for her as a present for the home.
He added: “I don’t believe I mistreated it by washing it.”
Carmel Wilde, prosecuting, said: “You are claiming you were just cleaning the cat? So why is it then that you have entered a guilty plea to animal cruelty?”
He replied: “Because it looks like I’m mistreating the cat.”
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The jury were shown a mobile phone clip of the cat being showered in a bath.
Ms Wilde said: “You know that cats are scared of water?”
Dempsey replied: “I didn’t realise this, I never had a cat before.”
The defendant said he sent Ms Robbins the video because he was “being silly” and had not intended to upset her.
Ms Wilde said: “What were you doing repeatedly banging the cats head in a door?”
He said: “I didn’t mean to do that. The cat was on the balcony. When I was the closing the door, the cat’s head got stuck.”
Ms Wilde said: “You’ve pleaded guilty. Now in your evidence you’re lying again. Does it look like it’s having fun?”
“No. I didn’t realise it was afraid of water to be honest, I didn’t know,” he said.
The court heard Ms Robbins replied with a text message saying the clip was “sick”.
However, Dempsey denied this was part of any “crusade” against her.
Ian Cooper Raymond Price, 40, of The Caravan Park on Tanhouse Lane, Widnes, has appeared at Liverpool Crown Court. PIC: Ian Cooper
Prosecutors say he broke into the flat between November 1 and 3, damaging a sofa, rug and coffee table.
They allege he returned between November 6 and 7 and stole the cat and some coursework.
Police were informed her flat had been set alight on November 8.
Dempsey accepted he was wrong to have threatened to “cut her brother from ear to ear”, when she said he could not collect his things because she was not at home.
Ms Wilde said: “That’s why you burgled her house twice. And that’s why you set fire to the flat.”
He replied: “That’s a lie. That’s not true. I took the cat and I took the stuff in the house with permission from Shauna.”
Ms Robbins sent him a text saying “you will have to break in then if you want your stuff”, which Dempsey said was her granting him permission to do so.
During police interviews, he said he was telling the “God’s honest truth” when he claimed he did not return to her flat after October 28.
Ms Wilde said he had told “a lot of lies”, but he replied: “I got mixed up.”
The defendant accepted he was lying when he repeatedly said he had not broken into her flat, but said: “I didn’t burgle the house because I had permission to go to the house.”
He said he denied that a neighbour lent him a screwdriver to get into the flat, because “I was afraid I was going to get into trouble”.
Dempsey denies two counts of burglary and arson recklessly endangering life.
(Proceeding)
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/