A Greater Manchester police officer has been sentenced after punching a five month old puppy.
In a video shown to court, Sergeant Martin Dunn can be seen calling the dog a “little bastard” and offering blows on the animal as it cried in distress.
The incident happened after the dog defecated on the carpet according to Manchester Evening News.
Sergeant Martin Dunn pleaded guilty to the charges and a spokeswoman for the Probation Service said that the officer was suffering from PTSD following the Manchester Arena bombings in 2017.
The spokeswoman said, “he is deeply ashamed. On the day of the event when he saw the puppy had made a mess he saw red.”
The spokeswoman also added that the officer was involved in a “horrific neighbour dispute” at the time.
The dog was examined by a vet and the animal displayed signs of fear which suggested that the puppy had learned to be frightened of aggressive behaviour.
One of the vets who examined the pet, David Ryan said, “When I shouted at Frank he reacted with extreme fear. Punching a dog repeatedly is not appropriate training.”
The officer was sentenced to a 12 months community order with 120 hours of unpaid work.
The prosecution called for the dog to be rehomed by the RSCPA and said, “any contact between Dunn and Frank would be detrimental. He took it upon himself to chastise it.”
In other police misconduct news, a serving Metropolitan Police officer was jailed after breaking a black man’s knee in a “clear case of racial profiling”.