Mum's shock Samurai sword killing of son's dog as it lay in 'sleeping position'

A killer mum who claimed self defence after stabbing her son's resting dog with a Samurai sword has been jailed and banned from having anything to do with animals.

Alicia Darcy, of Sandbach, Cheshire, initially claimed that she killed the dog while defending herself, telling police the animal had attacked her.

Cheshire Police officers she called following the incident on October 12 last year said they arrived at her property to find the sword still embedded in the animal.

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The 54-year-old, who was intoxicated when police answered her call, later admitted that she stabbed the dog and left it to die while it rested on her sofa.

Cheshire Police said they had found the dog in a "sleeping position" on the sofa with the weapon still embedded in its torso in what one constable described as a "very distressing" case.

Darcy admitted to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and possession of an offensive weapon in a private place during a hearing at Chester crown court last week.

She was handed an 18-month prison term, and a lifetime disqualification order that prevents her from owning or keeping dogs. The sword she used in the horror incident will be destroyed.

Speaking following the ruling, PC Charlotte Owen said the case was "very distressing" for those involved, adding it was "incomprehensible" for someone to "inflict such violence on an animal.

She said: "The level of cruelty was abhorrent. She left the dog to die with the sword embedded in it.

"It is incomprehensible how someone could not only inflict such violence on an animal but then be so callous as to leave it to suffer."