Slitting a cat’s throat during a sex ritual with his then girlfriend should land a city man up to 20 months in jail, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

But the lawyer for Steven Alcorn said the time her client has already spent behind bars — the equivalent of three months — is sufficient custody.

Defence counsel Krysia Przepiorka said Alcorn has made great strides in his rehabilitation and jailing him further would negatively impact that.

And Przepiorka suggested provincial court Judge Brian Stevenson should look beyond the sexual aspect of the cat killing in considering an appropriate sentence.

“They’re individuals who live a lifestyle,” the lawyer said of Alcorn and his then-girlfriend and their sexual activity.

Alcorn earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of causing unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to an animal in connection with a Sept. 15, 2012 incident at his Calgary home.

After obtaining a cat from the website kijiji, Alcorn and an on-again/off-again girlfriend — who can’t be named due to a publication ban — kept the animal for a couple of days before he strung it by the hind legs to a rafter in the garage.

A tarp was spread on the floor and the woman got on all fours before Alcorn slit the cat’s throat so it could bleed on her as part of the sexual ritual.

RELATED:

In seeking a sentence of 16 to 20 months, Crown prosecutor Gord Haight noted psychiatric reports on Alcorn painted a disturbing picture.

“The psychological reports .. demonstrate that allowing this person to serve his sentence in the community would endanger the community,” Haight said of Przepiorka’s call for a conditional term.

Doctors painted Alcorn as a “sexual sadist” who was aroused by choking others and they were worried he might get carried away.

The reports also noted he had fantasies involving animal corpses.

Haight said the circumstances in which Alcorn killed the cat called for a sentence above the usual range.

“The animal wasn’t killed in a fit of rage, it was killed while the accused’s sexual needs occurred,” he said.

Haight said “some of the alarming observations” in the psychiatric reports should result in a sentence which removes Alcorn from society for some time.

And he suggested Stevenson also impose a period of probation following Alcorn’s jail time, during which he can get counselling.

Przepiorka said if any more custody is warranted it should be served on weekends.

Stevenson reserved his decision.

kevin.martin@sunmedia.ca

On Twitter: @SUNKevinMartin​