6:43am UK, Friday November 25, 2005

A former member of the Royal Navy has been jailed for drop kicking a pet hamster, 'potting' it like a snooker ball and dropping it from a bedroom window.

John Ackland, 31, kicked his ex-girlfriend's pet Bruno three metres through the air and used a chair leg to play with him like a snooker ball, a court heard.

The drunken attack finished with the animal being thrown out of an upstairs window and then posted through a neighbour's letterbox.

The creature was so badly injured vets were forced to put it down.

The rampage, at his former girlfriend's home in Wincanton, Somerset, was witnessed by two teenage girls.

Ackland, who served with the Royal Navy for seven and a half years, had pleaded guilty to a charge of cruelty to an animal at a previous hearing.

The father-of-two was sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment at the hearing at Yeovil Magistrates Court.

Passing sentence, chairwoman of the magistrates Wendy Mellish said: "This was a sadistic and sustained attack on a defenceless animal that took place in front of children.

"The offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified."