"Gavin Wellesby, 19, and three school-age boys including one aged just 12 have now been sentenced at Manchester Crown Court for offences connected to the attack. It is still not clear who was responsible for most of the attacks on the animals. The identities of the boy and two others, who are aged 16 and 17, are protected by a court order imposed because of their age and ‘vulnerability’.

Staff were greeted by appalling scenes the morning after the vandals breached a fence, broke into a storeroom, and used tools they found to wreak havoc. The headless carcasses of 18 parrots, budgies and cockatiels were strewn about their aviary, and another nine were missing. The raiders had cut their way in and hosed the birds with water before decapitating them with hedge shears. In the pond, a dozen koi carp had been suffocated by a substance poured into the water.

A frog was pinned to the ground by a pole. A total of 173 greenhouse windows were smashed, plants were damaged, and an anthill was destroyed. The court heard that the four defendants had been on a ‘day out’ to the centre before returning to wreak havoc on May 29 last year. Wellesby, 19, of Elmbank Avenue, West Didsbury, admitted criminal damage and destroying property, in relation to one bird which he said was already injured. He was given an 18-month community order, with supervision, plus 100 hours unpaid work, and a two-month curfew. He was said to be normally a ‘gentle, decent and well-behaved young man’ with a mental age of ten.

A 17-year-old boy admitted criminal damage and burgling 100-litres of compost. A 16-year-old dad-to-be, said to have had an ‘abusive and chaotic childhood’, admitted criminal damage, burglary and destroying property. The pair were given 18-month youth rehabilitation orders, with supervision, 100 hours unpaid work, and curfews for two months. The 12-year-old boy was given a 12-month referral order after he admitted criminal damage and burgling the compost.

Sentencing the four for the ‘disturbing and upsetting crimes’, Judge Roger Thomas QC, praised the centre as a ‘splendid facility’ where volunteers worked for the benefit of the community. The judge said: “I know that my own personal feeling of revulsion about what happened to those animals will be shared by any other right-thinking, sensible person who hears about this.” But he added that the ‘guiding principle’ for sentencing young people was rehabilitation, and that community punishment fitted the case."

One for the animal rights crowd I think.