- Canada -
On Thursday, October 1, in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench, Justice Paul Belzil sentenced former banker 38-year-old JAMES NG, to two years in jail, two years probation following his release, and a lifetime ban on having pets.
On May 8, 2019, the defendant pleaded guilty to two animal cruelty charges deriving from two incidents in 2015 and 2017 where he drowned his then-girlfriend’s cats and tried to drown a third one.
NG was in court on Thursday and represented himself.
He told the court: “There is no excuse, no explanation for what has occurred. I am guilty as charged and deserve everything I get. What has happened here is a total nightmare for everyone involved.”
The court heard on Thursday that NG and his then-girlfriend were living in an apartment in Edmonton and had two cats, Picasso abouts-months-old, and DaVinci between 4 and 5 months old.
The girlfriend had adopted both furbabies from “Safe Team Animal Rescue.”
According to records, in July 2017, while NG was trying to get some sleep, Picasso and DaVinci were playing noisily and the defendant became angry with Picasso.
NG claimed that Picasso hissed at him, so he struck him over his head numerous times.
Then, NG took Picasso to the bathroom, put him in the bathtub, opened the faucet, held Picasso’s neck, and forced him underwater.
Eventually Picasso died of drowning because the water kept hitting his face preventing him from breathing.
NG claimed he performed CPR on Picasso, but all attempts were unsuccessful.
NG then admitted to trying to do the same to DaVinci but failed to kill him because DaVinci “put up a good fight.”
NG then went to sleep.
When the girlfriend came back from work, not only he told her what he did , but he also confessed that in 2015, while she was in Hong Kong, he lied when he told her that their cat Ms. P. ran away because he left the door open.
He confessed that he had drowned her the same way he did Picasso.
DaVinci was then returned to “SAFE Team Rescue.”