Urangan man Timmy Patrick Sawyer tortured and killed neighbour’s elderly cat

AS TIMMY Patrick Sawyer held a cat by its tail and thrashed it against a road, the old animal’s cries only encouraged him to keep going until it was bloodied and dying.

Timmy Patrick Sawyer, 26, of Urangan, viciously tormented a neighbour's cat. Picture: Annie Perets

AS TIMMY Patrick Sawyer held a cat by its tail and thrashed it against a road, the animal’s cries only encouraged him to keep going.

The Urangan man tortured the 12-year-old house cat, which belonged to a neighbour, until it was bloodied and dying.

The sickening attack was yesterday described by Judge John Robertson as “extremely cruel” and “just awful”.

Judge Robertson said Sawyer’s “level of determination” in the prolonged attack on the “little elderly ragdoll cat” was highly concerning. Picture: Annie Perets

Sawyer, 26, pleaded guilty in Hervey Bay District Court to one count of animal cruelty.

The court heard in August, 2016, Sawyer walked down a road in Urangan “swinging” the “little elderly ragdoll cat” by its tail with one hand and holding a milk bottle filled with wine in the other.

While swinging the cat, he forcefully hit its head onto the bitumen repeatedly while yelling “die you f***ing cat, die.”

The cat’s screams were heard by witnesses, the court was told.

At one point, Sawyer swung the cat over his head.

Witnesses told him to stop and Sawyer responded by throwing the cat into a bush.

Sawyer then pretended to be a concerned bystander when neighbours retrieved the cat.

Despite being covered in the cat’s blood, he asked “what’s the commotion?”

He looked at the injured animal and said “oh no that’s a bit sad.”

The cat’s final act was to lunge at its torturer.

“When you attempted to touch the cat, its last movement was to lunge at you and you backed away,” Judge Robertson said.

“It then died.”

The court heard that the cat had been with its owner ever since it was a kitten.

Defence barrister Phillip Hardcastle said Sawyer, who was aged 24 at the time of the offence, was a regular binge drinker and was intoxicated at the time.

Judge Robertson said Sawyer’s “level of determination” in the prolonged attack was highly concerning.

Sawyer was given a head sentence of nine months imprisonment.

He will be released on parole May 6.