A Hartlepool couple who starved their dog to death have been handed suspended prison sentences. Magistrates described the horror case as "one of the most serious cases of animal cruelty they had ever seen in all the years we have been on the bench”.

Bull breed Oreo weighed less than half his expected body weight and the remains of plastic were found in his stomach. Owners Rhys Hagan, 26, and Michelle Hindson, 27, have now been banned from keeping animals for life after they were prosecuted by the RSPCA.

The couple, of Briar Walk, Hartlepool , were sentenced at Peterlee Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, August 27, after they had both pleaded guilty to two offences contrary to the Animal Welfare Act at an earlier hearing. Magistrates were told the animal welfare charity started an inves

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