A BAREBACK horse rider, known as the 'Hemlington Cowboy', narrowly avoided being jailed for the second time in ten days after admitting to the brutal killing of a pregnant deer.

Magistrates told John Ginty that it was only his confession minutes before going on trial for allowing his dogs Spike and Whizzer to savage the roe deer on the Neasham Estate, at Eryholme, Darlington, on March 9 last year that had saved him from a term behind bars.

The court heard a car belonging to Marcus Batey, of Cannock Road, Middlesbrough, had been spotted with no frost on the windscreen parked near isolated Docking Stacks Plantation by a North Yorkshire Police patrol at 1.50am.

Kim Coley, prosecuting, said the pair were seen shortly afterwards leaving the woods near the River Tees, an area known to police and gamekeepers as a poaching hotspot, and Ginty was found covered in blood, two large lurchers in the boot and lamps, which are used to help dogs track down prey.

The deer was found to be dead near the entrance to the woods, with severe neck and hind leg injuries.

Ginty, who receives incapacity benefit, later admitted to having carried the deer, which was estimated to weigh more than 35 kilos, over his shoulder.

He was dubbed the 'Hemlington Cowboy' after riding a horse at speed through the housing estate and was jailed last year for breaching an order banning him from keeping horses on land owned by a housing association.

Ginty admitted killing the deer and hunting a wild mammal with dogs, while Batey, 25, admitted destroying rabbits.

Rob Hutchinson, mitigating for Ginty, of Fonteyn Court, Middlesbrough, said the stress of the media coverage of an animal cruelty trial earlier this month, in which he was handed a 14-week suspended sentence for mistreating a bird of prey and dogs, had shattered the 25-year-old father.

Offences he was found guilty of at Hartlepool Magistrates Court included capturing and keeping a wild sparrowhawk in his back garden and tethering it to a small perch, surrounded by loose and barking dogs.

Mr Hutchinson said: "It has cost him his home and his family and has been a wake-up call for him."

Magistrate Eric Taylor fined Batey £160 and told Ginty she had suspended his ten-week jail term, due to his guilty plea and lack of previous poaching-related convictions.

She said: "This was a particularly nasty offence, which we believe crosses the custody threshold."