WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Police said they found a ‘severely deformed’ saucepan at the horrifying crime scene.
Jordanna Wheeler beat her dog to death (Image: South Wales Police)
A woman who beat her dog to death with a saucepan in an alcohol-fuelled attack has been jailed for failing to comply with her court order. Jordanna Wheeler, 28, evaded prison last year after receiving a suspended 16-month prison sentence atfer admitting to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal at Swansea Crown Court.
However, the animal harmer has shown “complete disregard” for the strict orders she was meant to adhere to during the 18-month suspension, including breaking her three-month nightly curfew on six occasions and failing to attend any mandatory rehabilitation sessions. She had also been given a 120-day alcohol ban, after inflicting the alcohol-fuelled animal abuse, but Wheeler told probation staff she had instead taken cocaine on multiple occasions since.
At the hearing last year, the court heard that Wheeler arrived at Neath Port Talbot Hospital “demanding to be sectioned” due to her mental health issues, the day after a party where she drank copious amounts of alcohol.
She told staff she “woke up on the sofa covered in spew”, and when she went to look for her dog “I discovered I had battered him to death”.
Hospital staff reported it to the police, and when officers arrived they found a beaten large brown Mastiff dog lying unresponsive on the floor of her flat in the Penlan area of Swansea.
The court heard that officers found a “severely deformed” saucepan with dog hair on it, which Wheeler had used to “bludgeon her dog to death”.
Wheeler had been due to be sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to breaching the terms of her suspended sentence via videolink, but it was delayed, and she was remanded in custody because she arrived late to court.
The court heard that, in addition to broken curfews and rehabilitation appointments, the defendant had also missed numerous probation appointments without a satisfactory reason and failed to engage with outside agencies offering support.
Alexandra Wilson, on behalf of the Probation Service, said Wheeler had shown a “complete disregard” for the order and said the recommendation was for the original custodial sentence to be activated.
Sarah John, for Wheeler, acknowledged that activating the original sentence was the likely outcome. She said the defendant’s reasons for breaching the curfew, such as needing a walk, would not “hold much weight with the court”.
She asked the court to reduce the sentence given Wheeler’s compliance with abstaining from alcohol. Ms John added that the defendant had begun engaging with probation after breach proceedings began.
Judge Geraint Walters said when a defendant breaches a suspended sentence, the court is expected to activate the sentence unless doing so would be unjust.
He said not only would it be not unjust to activate the sentence under the circumstances, but it may even be unjust not to activate it.
He added: “Quite frankly, I think you are better off at the moment where you are, not least given the state you arrived in at court on Monday.”
Judge Walters activated 12 months of the suspended sentence. The defendant will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.