A man picked up his girlfriend’s Staffy pup and hurled it down a corridor, sending it crashing into a door.

The throw from shoulder height was caught on CCTV footage and brought gasps from people in court, including magistrates, when it was played yesterday.

But that was not the only ill-treatment the pup received at the hands of his owner’s partner, Phillip Alun Powell.

Police found further clips of him physically abusing the terrified pup and kicking it after it made a mess.

Flintshire Magistrates Court heard that police first became involved when the occupant of a neighbouring flat told police that someone had tried to kick his door in at night.

Officers checked the CCTV to find that the door was damaged by Powell, 32, picking up the pup and throwing it down the corridor.

It landed heavily on the floor and crashed into the door, sufficient to damage it, said prosecutor Sarah Marsh.

Other instances of kicking and throwing the dog had also been found.

Powell, at the time living in a flat in Church Street in Flint but at a house in Pen-y-Glyn in Bagillt, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the pup named Tie on October 8 – which put the defendant in breach of a suspended prison sentence for an earlier affray.

Magistrates were told that since the offence against the dog, for which he was disgusted and ashamed, that he had transformed his life.

He had moved to his own home with his partner, he had co-operated fully with the probation service and he had given up drugs. Negative drug tests had been provided.

Magistrates said it was clearly a serious offence which warranted custody but in the circumstances he received a 15 week prison sentence, suspended for two years and was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.

They said they hoped that further anger management work would be carried out under his order.

He was also fined £100 with £85 costs and a £115 surcharge – with a £28 vet’s bill.

The court made a 10 year order under which he is not to keep any domesticated animals.

Solicitor Simon Simmons, defending, said the dog had since been signed over to the police.

The lawyer said that he was a dog lover himself and accepted that watching the CCTV was difficult.

Powell, he said, had reacted as magistrates had done when he saw it and was disgusted at what he had done.

He accepted full responsibility and was not seeking to minimise what he had done.

It was accepted that it was “a particularly nasty offence”.

He had previously had mental health issues and had taken drugs, but things had taken a turn for the better.

Mr Simmons asked magistrates not to concentrate only on the emotional side of what they had seen on the CCTV.

“He knows what he has done is wrong,” said Mr Simmons. “He had never had a dog before.”

Powell came home and found the dog had damaged his property and was difficult to train and he became frustrated. He was unable to cope.

“He was not able to look after a little dog,” Mr Simmons told the Mold court. “He accepts that this was disgusting behaviour.”

After the police interviewMr Simmons said he had gone to the defendant’s home and found “a lovely little dog” which appeared happy and being properly cared for in the back garden.

The dog had been taken to Flint police station and formally signed over.