25 May 2012 Last updated at 09:11 ET

Stroud man Andrew Beese stabbed wife's cat to death

A Gloucestershire man stabbed his wife's cat to death following a drunken argument, a court has heard.

Andrew Beese, 60, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to an animal at Gloucester Magistrates' Court earlier.

The court was told Beese, of Bisley Old Road in Stroud, did not have any recollection of the incident on 29 December last year.

He is due to be sentenced at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on 15 June.

'Out of spite'

Nick Sutton, prosecuting, said that Beese had stabbed the cat, which was nursing four kittens, several times and severed its aorta, causing extensive bleeding.

He then disposed of its body in the back garden.

"This was a premeditated attack," Mr Sutton said.

"It was done out of spite. He killed the cat and it died from very obvious stab wounds.

"It really doesn't come more serious than this."

Steve Woodward, defending, said Beese did not remember stabbing the cat, but accepted the evidence against him.

He said his client, who had been drinking excessively, had argued with his wife before the stabbing.