A teenage serial animal killer has been jailed for eight months after he slaughtered a deer in his latest spree.
Brandon Robb, 17, of Leslie, had admitted using his pet dog to hunt and kill an exceptionally rare piebald deer.
Robb murdered the deer while awaiting sentence for stealing 30 ducks from a farm near his Fife home town with friend Benjamin Murray.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Tuesday, it was revealed Sheriff Max Hendry had received a social work report that stated Robb was “effectively living a feral existence”.
The teenager had plastered his own Facebook page with photos of him posing next to illegally slain animals, including the stolen ducks and the dead deer.
The deer have a distinctive brown and white coat and are thought to make up less than 1% of the white-tailed deer population.
Robb and Murray, of Greenside Court, Leslie, admitted stealing 30 ducks from Meikle Balquhomrie Farm, Leslie, between July 29 and August 1 last year.
Robb was found out after being caught on film when gamekeeper Mark Robson planted an infrared camera to catch the thieves.
Depute fiscal Lauri Mitchell said: “The birds were checked daily and on July 29 there were approximately 30 injured or missing.
“Witness Robson, who owns the farm, checked Brandon Robb’s Facebook page and saw a number of images of dead ducks and contacted the police.
“The Facebook messages indicated the accused Murray had also been present at the time.”
Robb, of Paterson Cottages, also pleaded guilty to using a lurcher-type dog to hunt and kill a piebald deer at Ballingall Farm, Leslie, when he did not have the legal right to take or kill deer, on March 16 and 17.
He also admitted that between January 1 and March 17, at the same farm, he hunted deer with dogs, as well as assaulting Dominic Trojanowski on February 19 and four bail breaches.
Sheriff Hendry jailed Murray for 13 months. He sentenced Robb to eight months’ detention in the care of the local authority.
He told Murray: “Your behaviour was, in short, atrocious. Your behaviour in the duck case was barbaric.”
Turning to Robb he said: “Although you are only 17 you cannot expect to continue to break the law and avoid the consequences of that.”
Robb will return to court in July to face sentence on further cases.