Man jailed for serial horse cruelty

A man has been sentenced to four months in jail for causing unnecessary suffering to a horse.

Clonus Jones, 53, of Shelfanger Road, Diss, Norfolk, also had an existing ban from keeping equines extended from 10 to 15 years.

Jones appeared at Thetford Magistrates Court on Monday, 1 October, charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a black cob mare which was found by RSPCA inspectors with a severe facial injury caused by a rope head collar and overgrown hooves.

The horse was one of a number removed from a location off Rose Lane, Diss, on 1 November, 2006, in a joint operation involving the RSPCA, International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH) and other agencies.

In July, Thetford Magistrates Court issued Jones with a 10-year ban on keeping equines for causing unnecessary suffering to a bay stallion. The horse had been found tethered to a 30ft chain with a canvas collar embedded in its neck. It had also been attacked by open cuts on both sides of its body.

On Monday, Thetford Magistrates extended its earlier ban, and ordered Jones’s co-defendant, Jason Shaw, 22, of Ladbrooke Close, Diss, to serve 100hr of community service. Shaw was also fined £200 costs, banned from keeping horses for three years and given a five-month curfew under which he cannot go out between 8pm and 8am.

Both Jones and Shaw have lodged appeals.

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