Bangor man in court accused of 'shocking act of cruelty' to a dog

Standing in the dock of Newtownards Magistrates Court 34-year-old Stephen Morrison was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a dog on 22 January this year.

Objecting to Morrison being granted bail a police officer told the court it was at 8.40am on Wednesday morning that police received a report of a male “being cruel to a dog in an area of Bangor.”

She outlined how CCTV footage taken from a doorbell camera has been “circulated widely on social media” which shows Morrison “shouting and swearing in an agitated state.”

“He has with him a small dog and the footage shows him forcibly punching the dog on the head and the back area at least two or three times,” said the officer adding that Morrison is seen to “lift the dog in an aggressive manner.”

As the footage proceeds Morrison is recorded launching a kick at the dog, named Colt, but a fence obscures the view so police are not sure whether the kick connects.

There was a further report that afternoon of Morrison holding the dog and that he was “pretending to throw himself out in front of moving vehicles.”

Morrison, the court heard, “has been named widely on social media and has attracted significant interest from people in the local area” and the officer said police have received information “that would pose a threat to him should he return to his home address.”

“Police are taking those threats seriously and believe that of he were to return he would be the subject of immediate action,” she told the court.

When Morrison was arrested he was “heavily intoxicated” but when he was interviewed and shown the footage, he accepted that he was the person in the footage, that it was his dog and further that his actions would amount to cruelty.

Applying for bail Morrison’s defence counsel said there was “an alternative address” in Belfast where the defendant could live but the police had not yet had an opportunity to check whether it was suitable.

Conceding that “it was a nasty incident,” she argued that if Morrison could live outside Bangor he would be a suitable candidate for bail.

Describing it as a “shocking act of cruelty,” District Judge Francis Rafferty granted bail in the sum of £250 but ordered that Morrison must live at an address police approve of.

Adjourning the case to 19 February the judge also imposed a complete ban on alcohol and barred Morrison from owning, keeping or having control of any animal.