A VALLEYS man was spared jail yesterday after he was convicted of killing one lamb and injuring another with his walking stick.

Bernard Pitt, 65, of Mount Pleasant Estate, Brynithel, was given a suspended sentence at Caerphilly Magistrates Court yesterday after he was comvicted of attacking the two lambs on in a field on farmland in Pantygasseg, Pontypool, on March 28 last year.

Pitt denied the two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, but a trial in December found him guilty of both counts.

Geraint Richards, representing theRSPCA, said the landowner’s nephew, Mark Powell, had carried out surveillance in the area and sawPitt and his sheepdog on the land, owned by Kenneth Raymond Morgan, that day.

The court heard how Mr Powell followedPitt and sawhim strike the two lambs with his walking stick, causing them to fall to the ground, and that he also struck the one lamb to its head with the stick.

Mr Richards said Mr Powell intervened and they had an altercation before police arrived.

He said one of the lambs was killed instantly, while the other was nursed back to health by Mr Morgan but lay lame for about two weeks.

The court heard Pitt still denies the attack. Mike Sage, for Pitt, said he is adamant he did not commit the offence.

Mr Sage said Pitt had been unable to attend an earlier court hearing after spending three weeks in hospital, including one in intensive care, for a serious infection. He said the former miner lives in quiet retirement, is virtually housebound and is also a carer to his wife.

Pitt, who was ordered to pay £500 costs, was given a six-month sentence suspended for 12 months and was ordered not to enter the land owned by Mr Morgan for the next 12 months.

The chairwoman of the bench, Diane Davies, said they did not feel it appropriate to make a disqualification order in this case.