A VIOLENT boyfriend killed his partner’s cat by throwing it at a wall during a domestic argument in Crediton.

Liam White claimed the cat was ill and that it was a mercy killing but has admitted causing the pet unnecessary suffering by not taking it to a vet to be put down humanely.

The killing of the cat coincided with the end of a violent relationship in which White had assaulted his girlfriend twice in the space of a month at their home in Crediton earlier this year.

White, aged 34, now of Barrows Gate, Newark, admitted battery, assault causing actual bodily harm and causing unnecessary suffering to a cat when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court. All the offences took place in June and July.

He entered a basis of plea which said the cat had been ill and he was putting it out of its misery.

Mr Rob Yates, prosecuting, said the basis is not accepted but that there had been no eye-witness to the killing of the cat.

He said: “It is not something that is going to make a material difference to sentence.”

Miss Kelly Scrivener, defending, said White had pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering because the “manner of the killing” could have done so.

She said the most serious assault involved throwing an X box console at his partner during an argument which caused bruising and which his partner said had left a scar.

Miss Scrivener said: “These offences happened in the context of a relationship in which they both had problems with drugs and alcohol. She now lives in Liverpool.”

Judge Anna Richardson ordered a probation report and bailed White on conditions that included not going to Crediton or Liverpool, contacting the victim, wearing a GPS tag, and not drinking alcohol.

White’s pleas of not guilty to strangulation, damaging the victim’s phone and causing actual bodily harm on three further occasions were accepted.