A Fife man who battered a seagull to death has escaped a jail sentence.
John Stafford, 32, will perform 200 hours of community service after he was found guilty of attacking, kicking and hitting a herring gull on its head with a rock at his Buckhaven home on July 11 2011.
Stafford returned to Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court for sentencing after being found guilty of the offence last month.
Sheriff James Williamson said: “I consider this to be a quite dreadful offence on your part.
“It is an offence which merits a custodial sentence but having looked at the papers it strikes me that a greater punishment would be to impose on you unpaid work in the community,” the sheriff said.
“If you come back having breached this order then the only alternative will be a custodial sentence.”
Stafford and another man, who has since died, were spotted attacking the gull in the garden of his Rushin Crescent home. The body of the bird was left in the garden until it was discovered by police officers investigating the matter.
Stafford, who works as a fisherman in the East Neuk, could have been sent to jail had his GP failed to certify him as fit for work, having suffered back problems.
Inspector Louise Seddon from the SSPCA said: “The young gull would have suffered unimaginable pain throughout the ordeal which lasted several minutes.”