RSPCA: County Durham couple sentenced after investigation exposes horrific animal abuse crimes including killing and burning a puppy

A couple from County Durham have been handed a 16-month suspended prison sentence as well as being disqualified from keeping all animals for 15 years after a string of animal welfare offences. The offences included setting a dog on a chicken, riding a small lame pony, beating another dog, and killing and burning the remains of a puppy.

John Cameron Lindop and Lucy Elizabeth Melrose were sentenced at Durham Crown Court on Friday 16 February. An RSPCA investigation led by Inspector Clare Wilson had been ongoing for two years after the charity was first alerted to the issues in February 2022. A member of the public had contacted the RSPCA after bringing Max, a lurcher they had recently rehomed, into the PDSA Gateshead with injuries to his abdomen, blood in his food and in his urine.

Inspector Clare Wilson said: “Max was very subdued and withdrawn, he was hanging his head and was attached to drips when I first saw him. I immediately noticed that his muzzle was very swollen as was his right side near his shoulder. There was blood visible in the white of his right eye too. His nails were not scuffed as we would expect if he had been hit by a car so the vet told me that they thought he had been beaten or kicked.”

The member of the public who brought the dog into the vets had rehomed him from Melrose and Lindop the day before and she had brought the lurcher to the vets as soon as she realised he was injured. A vet report found Max had suffered blunt force trauma injuries by physical abuse.

When interviewed, Melrose claimed that Lindop had “kicked him like a football and stamped on his head.” It was later revealed that during the investigation the couple had hid other dogs from the RSPCA, including a lurcher called Bambi and a German Shepherd dog called Tally. Melrose later showed these dogs to the RSPCA’s investigating officer. Tally was underweight and her right ear was crooked and inflamed with a severe ear infection. 

During the investigation, the mobile phone of Melrose was seized which contained shocking videos showing more animal welfare offences. This included Bambi, a fawn coloured lurcher, being baited and set on a chicken.

Lindop claimed Melrose was responsible for this but “accepted he found it funny at the time but did not know if the chicken had died as he had gone to the chip shop.” A series of other videos on her phone showed Melrose riding a Shetland pony called Dinky who was struggling under the weight of carrying the adult and was evidently lame in one leg. 

The female is carrying a whip in her right hand and trying to force the pony to trot forwards. The video is 16 seconds and during that time she hits the pony with the stick 10 times. 

Text messages between Lindop and his mother were also discovered in which Lindop asks “If a dog's been hit and nearly dead am I not in the right to finish it off so it’s not in pain or does that mean I killed it?”. The mother replied: “She killed it you put it out its misery but you would both get done as should have been done by a vet humanely.” Lindop then replied to his mother “Won’t find it now like coz burnt it.”

The charred remains of Hades, a 12-week-old Welsh Herder puppy, were found close to the railway line in an area of scrubland in Hordon, Peterlee, where there were burnt patches on the ground and fragments of Hades’ bones were discovered by the RSPCA. Lindop claimed in graphic detail that Melrose had killed him whilst Melrose told investigators that Lindop had “hung him from a door until he was brain dead.”

Lindop and Melrose were given a 16-month sentence, suspended for two years. Lindop was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and 40 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days and Melrose was also given 40 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days. The pair were also disqualified from keeping all animals for 15 years. Dinky was owned by a third party and is doing much better now she has recovered from her mistreatment and the dogs were brought into the care of RSPCA Felledge Animal Centre in Chester-le-Street where they have now found happy, loving forever homes.