Lewis Fox (pictured) killed a pet hamster because he thought it ‘preferred’ his girlfriend to him
A sick thug who tortured and killed hamsters using lighters and phone cables to torment his girlfriend has been jailed for 14 months.
Lewis Fox, 22, repeatedly threw one defenceless pet against a wall until it died, strangled another with a phone cable lead and squeezed the life out of a third.
A court heard Fox, from Sittingbourne, Kent, boasted of setting fire to a fourth hamster after it bit him.
The next time his teenage girlfriend saw the animal, its fur was scorched and its toes had been burnt off with a lighter.
Jessica Bradbrook, then 18, had bought the first hamster after they discussed having a baby together.
She wanted to see if he was capable of caring for an animal before trusting him with a child, Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard on Wednesday.
But within a week he had killed the rodent because he believed it ‘preferred’ her to him.
In March last year the scaffolder, whose current girlfriend is pregnant, killed another hamster and sent text messages containing images of its dead body to Miss Bradbrook.
Trevor Wright, prosecuting, said: ‘He told her he didn’t know why he did it, but then chillingly said it was the only thing he had control over.’
Fox later told police he had no feelings ‘for anything or anyone’, and did not even love his mother.
He also described his relationship with Miss Bradbrook as being ‘f***** up’.
Fox admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal between January 1, 2015, and November 7 last year.
The court heard he killed four hamsters, including three called Beano, Bud and Gizmo, and two rats.
Fox was sentenced just five days after the government announced proposals to increase the maximum sentence for animal cruelty from six months’ jail to five years.
He also pleaded guilty to engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship between December 30, 2015, and November 25 last year.
This involved him burning her with a cigarette, holding a knife to her throat, pinning her down on the bed and putting his hands around her neck.
Fox, who has a tattoo of a Fox on his chest, was jailed for 14 months at Maidstone Crown Court
Fox also accused her of cheating while he dated other women, verbally abused her, monitored her social media accounts, told her how to dress and flirted with her friends.
Mr Wright said: ‘He spat in her face on many occasions but perhaps most disgustingly of all, she describes how he would pick his nose and then the bloody contents on his finger would be wiped into her hair.’
A previous court hearing was told Fox’s mother reported his behaviour to police after the couple broke up in November last year.
Sentencing was adjourned on that occasion for a psychiatric report, which led to Fox being diagnosed with a personality disorder.
This was said to have left him with ‘callous unconcerns’ for others and a disregard for social norms and rules.
Jailing Fox, who also suffers from ADHD and has a history of substance abuse, Judge Julian Smith said prison was inevitable for such ‘persistent aggression and cruel behaviour’.
He added the sentence was ‘relatively moderate’ considering the impact of his offending but reflected Fox’s mental health problems.
Maidstone Crown Court in Kent (pictured) heard his girlfriend got the hamsters to to see if she could trust him with a child
He told Fox: ‘It was a relationship in which you quickly became controlling and undermining. You used violence and force upon her, blaming her for the injuries you caused.
‘You were cruel and contemptuous of her in your conduct towards her. It was distressing, it was debilitating in its effect upon her.’
Referring to the pet rodents, Judge Smith continued: ‘You killed them all, in various ways, each characterised by cruelty.’
Fox, who has a fox tattoo on his chest, told his mother and girlfriend from the court dock that he loved them.
He was made subject to a five-year restraining order in respect of Miss Bradbrook and also banned indefinitely from keeping an animal.
However, such orders do not prevent someone from living in a household where animals are already present.
Craig Evans, defending, said Fox, who has one previous conviction for a drug offence, had to give up his job because of suicidal and self-harming tendencies.
He added his family had done all they could to support Fox but he had failed to take advantage of the assistance offered by them and various organisations.