Drug addict goaded into cutting up and eating pet hamster 'Mr Nibbles' while still alive jailed for a year
8 March 2023, 16:21 | Updated: 8 March 2023, 16:30
A drug addict who was goaded by jeering onlookers into chopping up and eating her pet hamster has been sent to prison for a year.
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Emma Parker, 39, repeatedly stabbed the hamster, called Mr Nibbles, with a large knife and chopped it up while it was still alive before eating it.
Graphic footage of the horrific animal abuse by Emma Parker, 39, was posted online, prompting a warning by the RSPCA.
Parker, of Belvoir Gardens, Great Gonerby, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to her hamster in a previous hearing.
Lincoln Crown Court heard that the RSPCA received two videos, one of which showed the hamster in a hamster ball and the second showed Parker eating it.
Prosecutor Gordon Holt said: "The defendant was holding the ball with a knife in the other hand. She takes the knife and plunges it through the opening of the ball moving it from side to side.
"A spectator is laughing and says: 'What a sick b****** you are.'
"The hamster can be heard repeatedly squealing. it is allowed to escape and runs around a while.
"The defendant attempts to strike it with the knife, successfully at least once.
"She pinches its neck to keep it still. It is still alive and she uses the knife in a chopping and sawing motion over the middle of the hamster's body.
"In the second video the defendant eats the two halves of the dissected body."
Chris Brewin, representing Parker, a long-time drug addict with a history of substance abuse offences, said: "There's nothing I can say to mitigate the offence."
Mr Brewin said that at the time of the offence, "someone was living at the house that she sought to break away from".
The lawyer said: "She was working very hard to deal with her substance addiction and she says she is clean."
Mr Brewin said Parker had endured abusive relationships, and said: "She's been targeted as a result of this court case.
"She's had faeces out through her letterbox and she's concerned about what will happen to her after today."
Speaking after the case, RSPCA inspector Andy Bostock said: "We share the public's revulsion at this horrific incident and we'd like to thank the police for their support in this investigation.
"This type of cruelty has no place in today's society and was a heartless vicious attack on a defenseless animal. It has been upsetting and disturbing for everyone who has been involved in this case."
Sentencing Parker to a year in prison on Tuesday, Judge James House KC told Parker that he had to take into account that Parliament recently raised the maximum sentence for her sentence to five years in prison.
Judge House said it was "abhorrent" for Parker to have harmed the hamster for other people's entertainment.
