A South Coast man has been jailed for 18 months with a non-parole period of seven months for stealing and killing a dog.

Steven John Leffanue appeared in the Victor Harbor Magistrate’s Court this morning before Magistrate Lynette Duncan. 

He was sentenced on two charges of being unlawfully on premises and ill-treating an animal to cause death or serious harm and one charge of taking property without consent.

Leffanue had pled guilty to the five charges in February.

He was due to be sentenced in May but the matter was postponed to allow a psychological report to be obtained.

The court was told Leffanue had auditory hypersensitivity and had been triggered by the barking of the dog for 20 months leading up to the attack.

The charges related to a dog called Pup, owned by the Sherwin family

Amie Sherwin first reported that Pup had been taken from her Hayborough backyard on November 24 last year while she was dropping her children at school.  

A week later she received a call from the police to say that Pup had been found. 

She said the police told her Pup had been kept for five days and then taken to the backyard of an unoccupied holiday house, beaten and left to die.

A nearby resident saw the attack and called the police, leading to Leffanue’s arrest.

The RSPCA paid for Pup’s cremation and autopsy and say they hope the jail term will deter others from violence towards animals.

In a post to Facebook last year Amie said she could not bring herself to tell her children how Pup had died, telling them instead that she had been hit by a car.

“She did not deserve this cruel end to her life, she was a very much-loved part of our family who always just wanted to protect us and be with us,” she said.

“We are left absolutely disgusted and heartbroken.”

Pup