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Protesters cried out in a courtroom Friday after a judge acquitted a St. Thomas man of unlawfully killing his dog.

Tarrick Fakira-Martin’s dog Lady was found in a shallow grave at the north end of St. Catharine Street by St. Thomas police in July 2018. The German shepherd had blunt force trauma to her skull and liver, an expert witness testified during a three-day trial in October.

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But Fakira-Martin’s defence lawyer William Glover argued Lady had died in an accidental drowning.

In his decision, Justice Glen Donald noted Murray Hazlett, a mammalian pathologist who conducted Lady’s autopsy, testified he couldn’t rule out drowning as a cause of death.

Donald also said he couldn’t rule out the defence’s argument that Lady had fallen down a hill into water where she drowned.

During the Ontario Court trial, Glover had asked Donald to find Fakira-Martin not guilty of killing his dog, but said Fakira-Martin could be found guilty of a lesser charge of neglect as Lady was malnourished and had a broken leg that hadn’t healed properly before her death.