06-05-2025
Man fined after his four unmuzzled lurcher dogs mauled cat to death
The court heard that while 'two or three of the dogs were pulling at the cat,' a good Samaritan intervened and managed to take the stricken animal from them
Darren Prenter failed to attend Belfast Magistrates Court today as a prosecuting lawyer outlined how his pack of four lurchers attacked a cat in an entry between the Alliance Road and Ballysillan Playing Fields on September 9, last year.
District Judge George Conner proceeded to hear the case in the defendant's absence after hearing that the 28-year-old had been written to on multiple occasions.
The court heard that while 'two or three of the dogs were pulling at the cat,' a good Samaritan intervened and managed to take the stricken animal from them.
However, the prosecutor said 'the cat passed away in this person's arms a short time later.'
Prenter, from Velsheda Court, was interviewed under caution about the incident and admitted he had been walking his four lurcher-type dogs without a muzzle but said he 'did not know' it was against the law.
The lawyer explained to Judge Conner that under section one of the Control of Greyhounds Act (Northern Ireland) 1950, it is an offence to walk more than two greyhounds or lurchers without them being muzzled.
Darren Prenter
Prenter was convicted on each of the six offences including:
• Having four lurcher-type dogs which 'attacked and fatally injured another animal' at an entry between Alliance Road and Ballysillan Playing Fields;
• Being in charge of more than two lurcher-type dogs at Alliance Road/Ballysillan Playing Fields and;
• Being in charge of four lurcher-type dogs which were off-lead and not muzzled at Alliance Road/Ballysillan Fields.
In total, Judge Conner imposed fines amounting to £1,000 as well as a £25 offender levy.
Prenter was also ordered to pay £144 costs.
This is not the first time that Prenter has been charged with having dogs which attacked another animal.
At the time his lurchers set upon the cat, Prenter was subject to a two-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, after he admitted aggravated trespass on Glenwherry Moor.
In December 2023, Ballymena Magistrates Court heard how the moor's gamekeeper alerted the police to suspected hare coursing and shortly after police arrived, Prenter and two other men, Patrick Robert Shannon (52) and Patrick McGourty (29) came walking across fields with 'three lurcher dogs and a springer spaniel.'
'Police spoke to them and they said they had been out walking their dogs,' said the lawyer, adding that a search of the car revealed two dead hares behind the passenger seat.
The trio were given a formal police caution and claimed they were 'looking for rabbits and foxes…and that the hares were found by the roadside.'
Darren Prenter
The News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday, 6th of May
The court heard, however, that it was likely the two dead hares had been coursed as 'there were puncture wounds' but the defence argued there was no evidence they had been killed on Glenwherry Moor.
Shannon, from Annesley Street, McGourty who is from Cranbrook Court, and Prenter each admitted aggravated trespass on Glenwherry Moor and all three were handed suspended prison sentences.
In passing the sentence, Judge Martina Connolly KC described hare coursing as 'disgusting and despicable.'
She warned that hare coursing is essentially a 'day out of planned cruelty' and is 'a blight, literally, on the landscape as it involves horrific cruelty on animals…cruelty of any animal is something that the courts will not tolerate.'
