Drunk Hearts fan killed kitten during argument

By ALAN MCEWEN
Published on 25/08/2012 12:00

A HEARTS fan is facing jail after killing an 11-week-old kitten by hurling it against the floor hours after celebrating his team’s cup final win over Hibs.

Andrew Ronaldson had been out drinking after attending the game at Hampden when he went round to friend Laura McFarlane’s home in Wester Hailes.

The 21-year-old became embroiled in an argument with Ms McFarlane and grabbed her kitten, named Keeko, and raised the animal above his head.

Ronaldson dashed the kitten on to the floor, leaving the tiny pet suffering fits with blood coming out of its mouth.

Horrified Ms McFarlane picked up the kitten and ran upstairs to escape Ronaldson, but it died moments later.

Today, she told the Evening News that she and her three young sons were “heartbroken” over the kitten’s death.

Ronaldson, of Broomhouse Avenue, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday after previously admitting to causing the animal’s death in the early hours of May 20 at the house in Morvenside.

Sentencing was deferred by Sheriff Michael O’Grady QC who called for further reports.

Ms McFarlane, 26, said: “I’ve know him for years. I’d been in the pub that night but went back home. He came to my door with a couple of friends. He’d been at the Cup Final that day and was drunk, but I let him in.

“Then he was trying to start an argument with me. During that, he picked up Keeko and threw her with every bit of force he could on to the 
laminated floor.

“The police did a postmortem and said she would have died instantly.

“She seemed to be having fits, but the police said that would’ve been the nerve endings making her do that.

“He knew how much Keeko meant to me and my children so I think that’s why he did it.”

Ms McFarlane got the kitten from a friend as a pet for her sons, Lewis, eight, Kalvin, five, and Owen, three. But despite being devastated by the loss of the pet, she said she did not want Ronaldson jailed.

She said: “It’s difficult for me to say this, but I don’t want him to go to jail for what he did. I just want him to realise what he did was wrong. And he should be banned from ever having a pet of his own.”

Fiscal depute Fiona Caldwell told the court yesterday that Ronaldson had arrived at Ms McFarlane’s home at about 1am, and the argument broke out around an hour later.

The fiscal added: “The accused sat up and maliciously grabbed the kitten. He raised it above his head and forcibly threw it against the floor.”

Defence solicitor, Angus McLennan, said that in a statement to the police Ronaldson, who has previous convictions, told them that the kitten had “jumped up on to him and he had brushed it away”. His client, he said, had a problem with alcohol abuse.

Mr McLennan added: “He is extremely regretful about the circumstances in which this animal died.”

Related Articles

• HIV positive couple jailed after sex in pool lead to fight with police

  A COUPLE who suffer from HIV and who fought with police officers after being caught having sex in a swimming pool have been jailed.

  0 Comments

• Sadist charity boss punished wife for breaking sex and chores ‘contract’

  A HUSBAND who became a “slave master” to his wife after the couple signed a bizarre sex contract is facing jail after lashing her with a belt in a string of violent attacks.

  0 Comments

• Man jailed for killing puppy

  A MAN who killed his girlfriend’s pet puppy with a bread knife to "put it out its misery" was last night sent to prison for six months.

• Haunted by arson attack that killed best friend

  THE survivor of a fatal fire which left his friend dead today lifted the lid on the lengths the cold-blooded killer who started the blaze went to in a bid to conceal his crime.

• Terror has seldom seemed so ordinary

  IT WAS to be an atrocity planned by text messages adorned with smiley faces, an attack whose lethal components were collected from the everyday; second-hand cars bought through Autotrader, satnavs from Currys and Calor Gas canisters picked up at B&Q.