Mental care worker cuddles kittens before killing them

In a shocking case of animal cruelty, Aaron Baker, 26, was jailed last week for five months over charges of inflicting terrible injuries on rescue cats Panther and Buddy. The judge presiding over the case also banned the mental health care worker from keeping pets for life.

According to a story published in The Sun, despite images of him being affectionate towards cats, he has allegedly killed gerbils, hamsters and a cat called Milo, whom he was looking after for a family friend who passed away from cancer.

Panther and Baby were registered to Barker's psychiatric nurse girlfriend Verity Castle, 24, who is still standing by him despite the allegations.

The family is pleading with Castle to see sense fearing she faces danger on the prison release of a psychopath.

The court proceedings at Nottingham saw the hearing last week the four month old kittens had been collected from the Cats Protection League just 10 days before they were slaughtered last January.

However, Barker lied that the kittens were killed by a mysterious intruder while he was at work. He denied that daily interaction with violent mental patients had left him unstable.

According to RSPCA prosecutor Paul Wright, Panther suffered a fractured skull and blood on the brain while Baby had five fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen.

The two day trial at which Barker was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering heard damage to the kittens' claws suggested they had desperately tried to escape.

According to vets the kittens could have been had been struck with a blunt instrument, kicked, punched, dragged and thrown against a wall of the house in the city's Basford.

While defending solicitor Nigel Dicks said that close family members, friends and colleagues feel  he is a kind person and someone who is fond of all animals, Verity's brother Charlie, 22, revealed their mum and her husband have been left devastated by Verity's devotion to the beast.

According to the DHL administrator, Baker has a history of cruelty against animal with one friend admitting how he once killed a gerbil at school by attaching it to a ceiling fan.

The couple, soon after they met, adopted hamsters, all of whom died under mysterious circumstances. This was followed by the death of their pet cat Milo which Barker put down to accident. However the vet who had done the autopsy said he had been pinned down and battered in the head and kicked, his liver split and he died from a blunt force trauma.

According to the vet the RSPCA knows he killed Milo in the same manner as the kittens."