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A man who beat a Chihuahua with a mop pole during a fight with another man has been given a suspended sentence.

Ryan Keenan, 29, of Burnside Park in Letterkenny, County Donegal, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a dog on 20 July 2021.

Londonderry Magistrates' Court was told the dog was left with such severe injuries following the "horrific attack" it had to be put down.

Keenan was handed a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for three years.

The defendant admitted hitting the dog and said it had "got in the way".

Keenan has also been ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation.

The court was told that on the day of the attack, the woman who owned the dog contacted police to say that Keenan had used a piece of wood to beat her Chihuahua.

She said she was at her friend's house in the Strathfoyle area of Derry when two men, one of them Keenan, arrived.

The two men began fighting with each other and in the course of the fight damage was caused to the property.

The two men then went outside and continued fighting, the court heard.

In the course of the incident, the dog ran out and Keenan struck the dog with a mop pole he had in his hands.

'Wrecking the place'

The owner of the property said she had received multiple phone calls from the two men asking her permission to go to her house as they were drunk and had nowhere else to go.

She refused but was contacted by her friend who said the two men were at her home and were "wrecking the place".

She rushed home and saw Keenan with a mop shafts which he used to strike the dog.

The police were told the dog was "covered in blood, gurgling and not moving".

While on the way to the vet, the dog came around and was "yelping in pain".

The dog was found to have severe injuries, including several fractures, and had to be put down.

District Judge Oonagh Mullen said the dog's injuries were "horrific" and the animal would have been in "a large amount of pain".