A SADISTIC father who killed the family pet rabbit and forced his daughter to skin it and eat it for tea was jailed for three years yesterday.

Joseph Kernachan, 52, ordered the youngster to smash the rabbit's head on the kitchen top.

When she pleaded that she was not strong enough to kill the animal, Kernachan broke its neck and made a stew for the girl and her brother.

Marian Connelly, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that the children, who have since been taken into care, had been told they were not looking after their pets properly.

The court also heard Kernachan had beaten his daughter with canes, poured jugs of cold water over her and forced her to stand shivering in an outhouse for two hours.

He had hit her brother with sticks and slapped him.

Single parent Kernachan, of Micklow Close, Redcar, pleaded guilty to seven charges of child cruelty over three years and an actual bodily harm assault on his son last year.

In 1995, Kernachan was given two years probation for cruelty to his daughter after he put her in a cold bath and held her head under water.

Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Michael Taylor said forcing the girl to eat her pet rabbit was an "appalling" offence.

"You knew it was something that was causing that girl immediate distress," he told Kernachan.

"That is by far the worse offence as far as that girl is concerned, and that is something that is going to live with her for the rest of her life."

Kernachan was not fit to have anything to do with young children again.

In mitigation, Simon Reevell said Kernachan had given up his job as a grinder to look after the children when his wife walked out. He was a father who was unable to cope rather than a wicked man.

A spokeswoman for the NSPCC said: "We strongly support the judge's comment that nobody in this day and age can justify beating children."