A BUTLINS holidaymaker who attacked his girlfriend and later killed his cat with a hammer has been let off jail and spared a ban on keeping animals after claiming it was a 'mercy killing'.

Liam White, aged 34, killed the cat at the home he shared with his girlfriend and then put its body out with the rubbish in its litter tray in a bag for life.

The killing happened during a violent relationship with his partner, whom he had assaulted twice in the preceding month, and who claimed he threw the cat at a wall.

White admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the animal on the basis that he had found it dying from serious injuries and killed it with a hammer because he thought it was quicker and more humane than taking it to a vet.

He was in an on-off relationship in June and July last year in which he headbutted his partner while they were on holiday at Butlins, Minehead, and threw an Xbox controller at her in their home in Crediton.

White, formerly of Tarka Way, Crediton and now of Barrows Gate, Newark, admitted battery, assault causing actual bodily harm, and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal when he appeared in Exeter Crown Court.

Judge Anna Richardson gave him a 20-week jail sentence suspended for two years, ordered him to attend a Building Better Relationships course, and made him subjet to an alcohol monitoring tag for 120 days.

She decided not to impose a ban on White keeping animals in the future but made a five-year restraining order forbidding any contact with his ex-partner.

Judge Richardson told White: “You found your cat injured and rather than taking it to a vet, and believing it would not survive, you responded by killing it with a hammer.

“I accept your basis of plea that you were trying to prevent further suffering. It was well-intentioned but incompetent care.”

Miss Victoria Bastock, prosecuting, said White had been in a volatile on-off relationship with his partner for about two years and they had got back together when they went to Minehead Butlins in June last year.

A noisy argument broke out at the holiday centre in the early hours which resulted in him standing outside the couple’s chalet with a suitcase as she told him to leave.

A guest in a neighbouring chalet used her mobile phone to record him headbutting his girlfriend and knocking her back into the chalet. She went on to slap him.

A second assault happened a week later at their home in Crediton when he had been drinking and was playing an interactive Xbox game with friends online.

An argument started when she heard him calling her a ‘silly slag’ and saying he ‘needed to get shot of her’ and he then threw the Xbox controller, hitting her elbow and causing a small scar.

The cat was killed some time between July 8 and 11 and its body was found in its litter tray in a bag for life. A post mortem found it had a broken jaw and hip.

Miss Kelly Scrivener, defending, said White had no record of domestic violence, had accepted that the relationship was over, and was remorseful about his behaviour.

She said: “He knows he made the wrong decision about the cat when he did not take it to a vet. He wanted to put it out of its misery and did so in a brutal way inside the flat.”