Two students have been jailed after blowing up a sheep with fireworks following a prolonged and brutal attack.
Leighton Ashby, 22, and Oakley Hollands, 20, chased the animal before punching and kicking it for around 30 minutes in a field near Ditchling Beacon in the South Downs, East Sussex, in November 2023.
The attack escalated when the pair placed fireworks in the sheep’s mouth and anus, killing and mutilating it, before calling two friends over to witness what they had done.
Hollands filmed the incident and was heard laughing and encouraging Ashby to kill the animal.
Ashby, from Ashford, Kent, and Hollands, from Horton Kirby, Kent, both pleaded guilty last August.
Ashby was sentenced to two years in prison, while Hollands received a 20-month term in a young offenders’ institution.
Protesters gathered outside Hove Trial Centre as the case was heard.
The court was told the attack caused widespread distress in the local community, with some residents reporting “sleepless nights” and “anxiety” after learning what had happened.
Hove Trial Centre, where the court heard how the pair killed the sheep
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WIKIMEDIA/MORTEN WATKINS
Judge Stephen Gold described the incident as “callous and sadistic”.
Prosecutor Jordan Franks said: “Mr Hollands and Mr Ashby ran ahead on seeing a sheep and began chasing it.”
“Mr Hollands shouted ‘get it, get it’ to Mr Ashby. It was chased for a while until they closed in on it.
“Mr Ashby was sitting on it. Shortly after the mood seemed to change. “Mr Ashby put his arms round the torso of the sheep and swung it around, shouting ‘woo woo’.
“Mr Ashby kicked the sheep five times to the body and head. He put his arms around the head of the ewe and started punching it in the head, getting harder and harder until it seemed concussed and could not stand up.”
The court heard fireworks were then inserted into the sheep’s mouth, leaving it “obliterated”.
Hollands later told a female friend about the incident and sent her the footage.
The video was subsequently passed to Plumpton College, which alerted police.
The pair also kept the sheep’s ear tag, placing it inside an empty Monster energy drink can. It was later recovered from a communal toilet at their college.
Mr Franks said additional videos depicting violence towards animals were found on Hollands’ phone, showing what he described as a “worrying pattern of interest in the mutilation of animals”.
A community impact statement read to the court said: “The defendants will transfer this behaviour into their relationships with humans.
“Animals never have the opportunity to have a voice. This was a life that was taken.”
The court heard both defendants came from agricultural backgrounds and lived on family farms with animals.