Two young Dunedin men are behind bars today for brutally killing and torching a neighbour’s beloved pet lamb in July and for beating of a man.

Jesse James Kelly, 18, and Codie John Tobin, 17, were each sentenced to 10 months in jail on joint charges of stealing and killing a lamb in July, for the possession of a weapon, a knife, and the attack on a motorcyclist in August, as well as a series of breaches of community work.

Judge Fred McElrea also imposed release conditions on the pair, in the Dunedin District Court today ,which included sessions with a psychologist because, in the judge's view, the pair had "sick minds".

At 12.30am on July 21, Tobin and Kelly got high on hallucinogenic plant datura at Kelly's house, then stole a child's pet lamb, Larry, from a neighbouring back yard, McElrea said.

They led the animal away then carried out a sustained beating on its head in Kelly's backyard using wooden clubs, eventually killing it. Such was severity of the beating that pieces of the lamb's skull and brain were scattered around the yard, the judge said.

The offenders placed the body into a wheelbarrow, pushed it back to its owners' residence where they dumped it on the footpath to the front door, set it on fire and fled the scene.

On August 9, Tobin and Kelly assaulted a man in Dovecote Avenue, kicking and punching him on the ground. They had earlier yelled abuse at him as he drove his motorcycle on the road past them.

McElrea said a combination of the two incidents presented a "worrying element of thuggery and gratuitous violence that indicated a very sick state of mind in both men".

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Matt Johnson of Dunedin said the death of the pet, which his family had owned since it was two weeks old, had traumatised them. Johnson said they had only moved to Dunedin from Wellington a year before. The killing was the last straw for the family which had struggled with the move, and his wife and young daughter had already returned to live in Wellington.

Johnson said later he had remained in Dunedin because of work commitments but would soon also leave to join his family.

He was happy with the sentence Tobin and Kelly received.

"The judge did very well. Justice has been served."



