The owner of a horse which had to be put down after a brutal attack with a meat cleaver has told of her anguish at losing the pet she loved "like a mother loves a child".

Davina Bowyer watched from a court's public gallery as Matthew Corfield and Alex Lister, both aged 19, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. Corfield, of Higgs Road, Wednesfield, who laughed as he carried out the attack on 19-year-old mare Maggie, faces a possible jail term when he returns to court for sentencing next month.

Maggie suffered a five-inch-deep cut to her neck, a three-and-a-half-inch cut on her shoulder and her right leg was broken.

Stafford Magistrates Court was told a 12-inch by five-inch blade was used in the attack. The mare's rear-leg tendon was severed by a blow which cut to the bone.

Lister, of Olinthus Avenue, Wednesfield, who tried to film two men, including Corfield, running after the horse, on his mobile phone, pleaded guilty on the basis he was not aware of the meat cleaver being used and can expect a community sentence.

Speaking after the case, Miss Bowyer, aged 47, from Essington, said: "A major part of my life has been taken away.

"I loved Maggie as a mother loves a child. I can't function day to day knowing the way she was taken away from me."

Recalling the horrific scene she was met with after being alerted that her horse had been attacked at Essington Hall Farm on April 13 last year, Miss Bowyer broke down in tears.

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She said:"She was lying down. There was blood everywhere. She saw me as I ran over to her and she tried to get up but collapsed back to the floor.

"She lay there rubbing her head against me. The vet came and I just hoped something could be done but one leg was completely smashed and an achilles tendon had been severed."

Davina, who broke in and raised Maggie from a yearling and was with her every day for 18 years, says no sentence is enough.

She said: "I just wish this could be treated as murder because that's what it is."