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A cat owner accused of cruelty claimed in court that he carried out emergency first aid on kittens found dying in his ransacked living room.

Health care worker Aaron Barker said the four-month-old pets were “bleeding and soiled” when he came home from a 13-hour shift.

Ornaments and a table lamp were smashed and a rug had been moved from one side of the room to the other. A leg had been broken off a table, said Barker. He told the court that the back door was unlocked.

He said that he picked up kittens Panther and Baby, taking them into the bathroom to clean them.

“I tried to make them a little bit comfortable, clean them up and stuff. They were breathing funny, meowing different to normal,” said the 26-year-old, who lived in Songthrush Avenue, Basford, at the time.

He said that when he returned from putting his phone on charge, the kittens had moved behind the toilet. He began to rinse Panther and told Nottingham Magistrates’ Court: “I held him firmly and he wriggled out of my hands, jumped up and collapsed on the bath floor. It sounded like a massive thud.

“He went all floppy. I picked him up. I was in hysterics, shaking and panicking. I gave him mouth-to-mouth and CPR to keep him alive. I am trained to do it at work.”

Nigel Dicks, defending, asked: “Two kittens have been done to death in your house? Did you involve the police?“

He replied: “I know some police officers and asked. They said you need veterinary expertise.”

The court heard that he worked in a secure unit where he was attacked and saved lives daily and stopped people harming themselves.

Mr Dicks asked: “How does that affect your anger?” Barker responded: “It doesn’t, doesn’t at all. I have never been aggressive in my life, never been in a fight, never even had a parking ticket.”

He denies two counts of causing unnecessary suffering by inflicting physical abuse and two charges of failing to protect the pets from pain and suffering on January 20.

The case has been brought by the RSPCA, which says the pets died through “blunt-force trauma”. Panther had a fractured skull and a bleed in the brain. Black-and-white Baby had five fractured ribs and a ruptured liver.

Paul Wright, prosecuting, asked vet Christine Jamieson how badly they had suffered.

“It would have been horrendous because of the injuries to the head and the rib fractures. It would cause a great deal of pain and fright,” she said.

There was also damage to their claws, which suggested they were “trying to get away“, added Miss Jamieson.

Barker’s girlfriend, Verity Castle, went with him to a vet’s and said she was told they could have been poisoned. She suggested this might have been caused by meat being dropped through the letterbox.

After the couple agreed to pay £200 for a postmortem, she was called back to see a vet. She told the court: “She told me the initial results were that they had been kicked, dragged, punched or thrown against a wall. She asked me if I was even safe in my own home.”

The trial continues.