Men who repeatedly punched and kicked sheep before blowing it up with fireworks jailed
Two agriculture students who carried out a “sadistic” attack on a sheep, including placing fireworks in its mouth and body, have been jailed.
Leighton Ashby, 22, and Oakley Hollands, 20, filmed the 30-minute attack on a mobile phone and kept the sheep’s ear tag as a “token”. This tag was later hidden inside a Monster energy canister and discovered in a public restroom.
The pair, who are enrolled at Plumpton Agricultural College, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. Ashby was sentenced to two years behind bars, while Hollands was sentenced to 20 months in a youth offender institution.
Hove Trial Center heard the two men invited two fellow students to see a “dead badger” on the evening of November 2, 2023, and Hollands told the group he had been drinking alcohol while behind the wheel.
After arriving in a field near Ditchling Beacon, the group walked along a public footpath before Ashby and Hollands began chasing a sheep, eventually pinning it to the ground.
Shortly after, Ashby began “shaking it from side to side” and kicked the sheep five times in the head and torso. When other witnesses wanted to leave and asked for the car keys, Hollands refused and began recording the incident on his mobile phone.
At one point, as the sheep was unable to stand due to the blows to its head, Hollands was heard shouting “Go ahead, kill, kill, kill” while laughing in the background.
Explosive devices were then placed in the animal’s mouth and anus, leaving it severely mauled with fatal injuries.
After the group returned to the university, Ashby was heard telling Hollands, “We need to wait a few weeks before we do this again.” The pair were reported to police after a female witness asked Hollands to send her the videos. The situation was also reported to university staff.
Both men were expelled from the university as a result of their actions.
Analysis of their phones also revealed other disturbing material on Hollands’ device, including images of a dead fox being dismembered and a badger being kicked.
Describing his actions as a “worrying display of animal mutilation and destruction”, prosecutor Jordan Franks said: “This is not just about inflicting pain. It could have been in a different context: violence against sheep out of frustration, anger, vanity.”
“Crown case of Mr Hollands laughing and shouting ‘kill him’. Post-incident video shows blood on his hand, hiding the token of the sheep’s ear tag. There are worrying signs that they took great pleasure in the pain they caused.”
Protesters gathered outside and sat in the public gallery, holding signs calling for imprisonment and animal rights advocates naming the sheep ‘Eunice’.
In a social impact statement read aloud to the court, Mr Franks said the public had reacted with “great disgust” to the violence committed by the two men.
The court heard that both defendants were previously of good character and from agricultural backgrounds, with Hollands diagnosed with ADHD and Ashby with autism and a learning disability.
Sentencing them, Judge Jeremy Gold KC said: “It is difficult to understand what satisfaction you can derive from chasing sheep, but you caught a lamb, a Romsey ewe, and then kicked and beat it to death for your own perverted satisfaction.
“The suffering of that defenseless animal is graphically reflected in the video footage you shot during the attack.
He continued: “As if what had been done wasn’t bad enough, you decided to plant fireworks inside the lamb to cause further suffering and maiming to this innocent creature. The fact that you both came from farming backgrounds and were studying at Plumpton at the time makes your callous and frankly sadistic behavior even more worrying and difficult to understand.”
