A TEENAGER has been spared jail after he let a dog maul a cat to death while he captured the footage on his mobile phone.

The Middlesbrough youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted failing to prevent unnecessary suffering to an animal in May this year.

Teesside Youth Court heard that the teenager watched the pet cat being shaken to death by two dogs, while he filmed the attack.

Rachael Ramez, prosecuting, said the youth was seen letting the cat out of a garden in Henley Road, Linthorpe, before he allowed a bulldog-type dog and a Jack Russell to attack the 11-year-old cat.

Rebecca Smith, in mitigation, said: "He accepts that he stood back from this attack and recorded it from his mobile phone.

"When he was interviewed by the police and shown the footage, he was quite appalled. He realises that it was an act of great stupidity he will have to live with."

District Judge Martin Walker declined to watch the footage of attack.

Sentencing the teenager to a 12-month referral order, Judge Walker said he was lucky to avoid prison.

He said: "This is a very serious matter. If he had been an adult the starting point, even for a man of good character, would have been a sentence of imprisonment.

"To open the gate was only going to result in one outcome, then to stand back and watch was bad enough, but to film it beggars belief."

Defending his decision to allow the teenager to maintain his anonymity, Judge Walker said: "Although this is a serious offence, I do not believe that this youth, of previous impeccable character, will commit this offence again.

"I also do not think naming and shaming him will prevent other people doing it."

The teenager was ordered to pay £200 compensation to the owner of the cat, as well as £50 in court costs.

He was banned from keeping animals for five years.