JAILED: Teenager locked up for stealing refuge cats to use as BAIT for his dogs

Frank Lewis was so barbaric he even slit the cats’ legs to slow them down as his dogs went for the kill.

The 18-year-old broke into the pets’ refuge and stole the cats being nursed back to health by volunteers only two weeks after his cruel streak had already been exposed.

Lewis had been given a referral order by the courts for stealing a sheep, stringing it upside down on a tree and cutting its head off with a machete.

Pictures of him standing brazenly next to the mutilated animal were posted on Facebook.

After Lewis, who is unemployed and on benefits, appeared before Swansea Youth Court, he then carried his next outrage breaking into the Ty Nant Cat Sanctuary at Port Talbot, South Wales.

Georgina Buckley, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court: “Lewis essentially used the cats for sport.

“He used his dogs to hunt down and kill them. He caused lacerations to the cats himself to try and hinder their escape.”

Three cats were later found dead in different spots, four were found alive and three others are still missing, presumed dead.

During the search for the missing cats, she suffered a fall and sustained spinal injuries. She is still waiting for the results of an MRI scan.

The prosecutor added: “Post mortem gave the cause of death as the result of an attack and having been shaken viciously by an animal, like a dog."

Sanctuary owner Theresa Ahmed, owner of the sanctuary, had emotional victim impact statement read in court, where she called Lewis "pure evil and being without a soul."

Ms Ahmed, who built the sanctuary on the grounds of her family home and has run it with her husband since 1990, said: “The burglary has changed my life forever.

“The sickening realisation that cats were missing and what had happened to them will remain with me for the rest of my life.”

Sentencing Lewis to 30 months in a young offenders’ institution, Judge Paul Hopkins said his sickening acts added with his "extreme right-wing views on race and sexuality" meant he was "dangerous."

Judge Hopkins said: "You tortured a sheep before beheading it, and then took a photo such was your satisfaction at what had been done.

"You then broke into a cat sanctuary and stole 10 cats. You used them as bait for your dogs.

"They are acts of great cruelty amounting to sadism."

Lewis, of Croeserw, near Port Talbot, had pleaded guilty to burglary and criminal damage.

Defence lawyer Daniel Heard said Lewis accepted responsibility for the burglary and the deaths of the cats.

"Lewis concedes his dogs were trained to hunt and he knew full well about what the outcome would be, said Mr Heard.

He added that Lewis, whose mother committed suicide five years ago, had been seen by child psychologists after decapitating the sheep, who concluded he showed "psychopathic traits" and signs of a personality disorder.

Lewis’s 15-year-old accomplice, who was found not to have taken part in the killing of the cats, was given a nine month curfew order earlier this month.