Burglars beheaded man's cat
Two burglars who beheaded a cat and cooked a live mouse in a microwave in Greater Manchester have been jailed for three years each.
Steven Browitt and Andrew Maloney used a blunt axe to behead Greta, a blind 19-year-old tortoiseshell cat, during a break-in in Wigan last August.
They left her severed head on a living room coffee table for owner David Byrne to find when he returned home.
Browitt and Maloney, aged 35 and 26, both from Wigan, also killed Mr Byrne's pet mouse Snowy by putting it in the microwave along with some vegetables.
The pair, who also ransacked the house, broke windows and smeared food around the kitchen, admitted burglary with intent to cause criminal damage at an earlier hearing.
They were each sentenced to three years imprisonment when they appeared at Bolton Crown Court.
Judge Gillian Ruaux said: "This was a wicked and malicious crime in which you showed a callous indifference to the suffering of the victim's animals and the suffering of the victim himself.
"The only view I can take is that Mr Byrne had been singled out for this attention. I don't know why."
