John Odah: Concord car wash owner sent dog abuse videos to ex
This inner west car wash owner repeatedly filmed himself abusing the French Bulldog belonging to him and his ex-girlfriend after he found her new profile on a dating site, a court has heard. Warning: Graphic Content.
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The man at the centre of distressing videos depicting a dog being repeatedly beaten after becoming unwell has been identified as an inner west car wash owner.
John Odah, 51, repeatedly filmed himself abusing the dog belonging to him and his ex-girlfriend when he found her on a dating site after the relationship soured, a court has heard.
In four distressing videos sent to the woman, Concord businessman Odah can be heard calling the dog “a f****** c***” before repeatedly kicking the French bulldog named Eiffel.
“Say hello to mummy, that’s right bow your head you little c***,” Odah says in the video before a series of strikes.
“He lives in the bedroom, he s***s in the bedroom and he stays in the f****** bathroom.”
Odah this week pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty in the Burwood Local Court after RSPCA investigators were alerted to the abuse in December last year.
The videos and some of the images of the abuse tendered to the court were so graphic they were unable to be published.
Court documents reveal the RSCPA believed Odah’s actions would have caused “extreme distress” to Eiffel.
In another video, Odah approached the dog and said “are you going to f******* do that again?” before kicking the dog.
When investigators searched Odah’s home after learning of the videos, they found the pooch lying in a pool of diarrhoea.
Examinations later showed Eifell was suffering from a number of injuries and medical conditions.
In a signed affidavit tendered to the court, Odah said he accepted responsibility for his actions.
He detailed a series of events late last year leading up to the abuse when he found his younger former flame on dating site seeking.com after she returned to Ireland for her sister’s funeral.
“It was during these periods that my ability to control myself was lost and I mistreated my dog,” Odah said.
“I am sorry for that and did not wish to harm him in any way.”
“I accept that by kicking him (with) what I thought were gentle kicks I could show my ex-partner the state her departure had left both myself and our dog in.”
Odah maintained that during that time the dog’s condition was deteriorating and he had taken the dog to the vet for treatment numerous times.
He added that business pressures had led to him not being able to spend as much time with Eiffel, who had developed separation anxiety.
The 51-year-old was handed a two-year community corrections order by Magistrate Lisa Stapleton and has been banned from owning a dog for two years.
Odah is now appealing the sentence on the basis that it was too severe, according to court documents.
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