THE owner of a horse which was killed at a busy roadside was banned yesterday from keeping animals for five years.

The black colt was found strangled by its chain down a steep embankment next to the A688 bypass at Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

District Judge Tony Browne, sitting at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court, told Steven Walker that he had almost signed the horse's death warrant because he had not taken the necessary care while tethering the animal.

Walker, from Egglestone Walk, St Helen Auckland, pleaded not guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to the horse in May last year.

He said he had 30 years experience in keeping horses and had made sure the animal could not reach the steep embankment next to where it was tethered.

But the court heard how the horse's 14m chain allowed it to get to the top of the embankment, where it fell.

Walker said he last saw the horse alive when he checked it at 7.30pm the previous night. He said he thought the horse had got loose during the night and that a passer-by had tied it up again closer to the embankment.

But Judge Browne said he did not accept the 46-year-old father's explanation and banned him from keeping animals for five years, fined him £200 and ordered him to pay a further £200 towards prosecution costs.

He said: "I accept that you did not intentionally set out to be cruel to this horse but what you did, in the way that horse was tethered, did cause it, at the very least, serious harm."

Afterwards, RSPCA Inspector Garry Palmer said he was delighted by the outcome and restated the charity's opposition to the tethering of horses.

* The Northern Echo launched its award-winning Animal Watch campaign to highlight the region's appalling record of animal cruelty.

Read more about the Animal Watch campaign here.