A MAN and woman from Monmouthshire have been sentenced for causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

Julie Elmore, aged 55, of Brynarw estate near Abergavenny; and Paul Reece, 48, from Itton, near Chepstow; appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court yesterday for sentencing.

They had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to foxes.

Sentencing, District Judge Joanna Dickens said: “Elmore received deaths threats and Reece was the subject of a hate campaign on social media.

“Mr Reece lost his job and his home as a result of this case.

“It’s clear that has been a punishment in itself.

“They have both lost in terms of their health and their livelihoods.

“I do hope the social media hate campaign stops against them.”

The pair were given six-month conditional discharges and both ordered to pay £50 costs and a victim surcharge of £20.

In the same case, three others - including a 40-year-old Abergavenny man - denied the same charges. Their trial concluded yesterday.

Terrierman Nathan Parry, also of the the Brynarw estate near Abergavenny, was found not guilty of causing suffering to four foxes, after a judge accepted that he believed the animals would be relocated in the wild.

He had appeared at trial alongside Paul Oliver, the former master of hounds with the South Herefordshire Hunt; and Oliver’s partner Hannah Rose, a kennel maid.

Oliver, 40, and Rose, 30, both of Sutton Crosses, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, were yesterday both found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to fox cubs which had been killed by hounds at the South Herefordshire Hunt in 2016.

During the trial, prosecutor Simon Davis said: “The unnecessary suffering involved throwing fox cubs into the kennels of the fox hounds, thereby killing them.”

Oliver was convicted of four counts of animal cruelty, and Rose of three counts of the same charge.

Sentencing, the judge said: “This was a very serious offence of its type.

“The fox cubs suffered a painful terrifying death.

“[Oliver and Rose] are finished in the hunting community as a result of these proceedings.”

Oliver was given a 16-week suspended prison sentence; and Rose a 12-week suspended sentence.

Both were ordered to pay £300 in costs and a £115 victim surcharge.