In one of the worst animal cruelty cases ever seen in Tasmania, a 20-year-old man has pleaded guilty to bashing, stabbing, running over, setting fire to and blowing up five possums.

Jason Stephen Hampton, 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of committing an act that resulted in the death of an animal, five counts of taking partly protected wildlife without a licence, three counts of cruelty to animals and five counts of practising an illegal form of hunting.

The Launceston Magistrates Court was shown video footage of a possum being beaten to death and another being caged and then stabbed with a knife tied to a stick.

Three more were deliberately run over.

Two of the possum carcasses were then filled with an aerosol can and sparklers and made to explode, while a third was set alight with an aerosol-fuelled flame.