The man found guilty of cruelty charges against a pet dog in South Golden Beach will have his fate decided in Lismore in May.
In October 2020 Robert Bruce Stewart faced multiple hostile witnesses as the defendant in a two day trial in Byron Bay, following his bow-shooting attack on his neighbour’s young Wolfhound-Malamute cross in December 2019, which led to the dog’s death.
In December 2020 Magistrate Karen Stafford sentenced Mr Stewart to nine months in prison including five months without parole, but he has been on bail since then as his lawyer John Weller argued that the sentence was too severe.
Magistrate Stafford noted in sentencing that she could have given the defendant two years, but reduced it due to mitigating circumstances, despite the seriousness and cruelty of his offence.
Bob Stewart has been granted leave to appeal the severity of his prison sentence in Lismore District Court on 11 May.
So now the court that’s hearing the appeal should go the other way, and put this “person” away for the full 2 years …the communit demands that he learns a lesson..his lawyer is only actioning this because he’ll make more money out of it …
I wish him well, I felt many times like killing my noisy Neighbour’s dogs ,I totally sympathize with him…unfortunately you are even worse off if you kill the dog “owner “,because they are the actual problem,the dogs are just the poor creatures who have to put up with the people,they are not given a choice! A few years ago someone wrote a brilliant letter to the editor of the Echo about “responsible dog owners “,stating this is an oxymoron…I wholeheartedly agree!