Ben Wright killed his partner's pets deliberately out of spite

Benjamin David Wright had pleaded guilty in Glen Innes to killing his partner’s three dogs and a cat with such brutality that the cat’s tail became dislodged from its spine when it was bashed against a car.

At the sentencing in February, Magistrate Michael Holmes told him that a message had to be sent to the community that “the “death of animals cannot be of such a gruesome nature”.

Now, Wright is to appeal, with a hearing set for Wednesday in Armidale.

The grounds of the appeal are not clear, though at the hearing in Glen Innes earlier in the year his lawyer said that mental health treatment was more appropriate than prison.

On March 22 last year, Wright had killed the animals in what the court heard was a fit of “spite” at his partner while they and her four month old son were living in a caravan near Glen Innes. 

At the sentencing in February, Mr Holmes said the sentence of twelve months for aggravated cruelty had already been reduced by a quarter because of Wright’s guilty pleas.

“I have no other option but to send you to jail”, said the magistrate. He said it was a ”horrible event and the actions were of a deliberate nature”.

The court heard earlier that Wright told the police that he was a qualified slaughterman and had dispatched the animals humanely because they were ill.

But the court heard that a vet who had examined the carcasses found no ailments, and thought they had died in great pain.

According to the court, his partner said that Wright had been sharpening his knife a week before killing the animals. 

The two plus his daughter were living in a caravan in the bush and, the court heard, he was under severe financial and emotional pressure. 

He had been prone to angry outbursts in the past.

At the original trial, prosecutor, Cheryl Hall, had told the court that there was “an element of planning”. The animals “weren’t killed humanely. They did suffer horrific and tremendous terror”.

In February, Wright’s partner, Billie-Jo Baker, said after the sentencing that Wright should have got longer. 

She told The Glen Innes Examiner that she wanted the information about the case made public: “I just want to make a stand for animals and also for women against domestic violence.”

She called her animals her “furbabies”. The dogs were named Darby, Chester and Ella and the cat was called Missie.