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Pic: Graham Hunt/BNPS

General view of Abder Court where the cat was drowned.

Animal rights groups today slammed the decision not to jail a gardener who drowned a neighbour's pet cat that was a nuisance to birds and his vegetable patch.

Richard Giles put tabby cat Ruby in a sack and held her down in a water butt before dumping her body in a ditch.

Ruby's owner, Shirley Gear-Evans, spent two days looking for her pet before Giles told her: "You won't find her. I've killed her."