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.
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