Smithton man cruelly kills a rottweiler after partner reveals she slept with his best friend

A Smithton man went into a frenzied two-day period — including cruelly killing a rottweiler — after discovering his best friend slept with his partner. His sentence.

Rottweiler standing on green grass. File photo

A jealous man seeking revenge has been sentenced in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on animal cruelty charges after he abducted, tortured and killed his best friend’s rottweiler as punishment for sleeping with his partner.

Kurt Allan Horton, 34, of Smithton, was engaged in a separation from his de-facto partner of seven years when the dog’s killing and other charges occurred over a frenzied two-day period in November 2023.

The couple were separated and Horton was placed under a family violence order. In late November 2023 he visited his family and resumed a sexual relationship with his estranged partner.

According to court documents, during the course of the rekindling his partner told him she had engaged in “a brief relationship” with their neighbour and best friend.

As the days passed, Horton became increasingly angry about his partner’s dalliance and started questioning and abusing her, before throwing her across a room, strangling her and biting her.

The following day. Horton went to the home of his friend.

Supreme Court of Tasmania, Salamanca Place, Hobart, Tasmania. File picture

The man’s 10-year-old rottweiler, Samson, was home and Horton abducted the dog and brought him to the shed of his own house.

Once there, Horton stabbed the dog all over its body, and smashed its skull in with a tool, thought to be a hammer.

An autopsy found the dog died a slow, painful death after bleeding out from the deep stab wounds. Horton put the dog’s corpse in a shed on his estranged partner’s property, where she found it later that night.

In sentencing Horton, Justice Jago said Horton’s crimes towards the animal were “serious and cruel” and the killing of Samson was clearly “an act of retribution” towards his partner and best friend, with the dead animal intended to terrify and threaten his partner.

“Your act of killing Samson was planned and deliberate and was motivated by malice, revenge, and jealousy.” Justice Jago said in her sentencing remarks, released earlier this week.

Justice Jago sentenced Horton to two years in prison, backdated to when he was taken into custody last year.

The final nine months of jail time was suspended, due to Horton having no prior criminal convictions, and having undertaken rehabilitation programs in prison.

Originally published as Smithton man cruelly kills a rottweiler after partner reveals she slept with his best friend