A DRUNK teen smashed a tortoise to pieces with a baseball bat, a court heard.

Daniel Winspear, 18, smashed the defenceless creature in a sickening attack at a house party Winspear was found in the conservatory still holding the bat, and the tortoise dismembered after party-goers heard noises in the early hours.

The case has been described by RSPCA inspector Graeme Foggin as "shocking".

Tests proved the pet, which is an endangered species, did not die from it's injuries straight away.

Winspear launched the attack after being invited to a party organised by a teenage boy while his parents were on holiday.

The owners of the house in Merganser Road, Bishop Cuthbert, Hartlepool, were away at the time and were stunned to be told of the attack by telephone.

Stepdad James Ball, 51, said: "It was my pet and I was on holiday at the time when I got the phone call to say the tortoise had been tortured.

"I came home right away. I was absolutely flabbergasted and totally distraught that someone could do this."

Winspear was warned he could face jail after admitting to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal when he appeared before Hartlepool Magistrates' Court.

John Ellwood, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said: "He smashed a tortoise to death with a baseball bat.

"He was a guest at a party at a house where the occupants of the house had gone away for the weekend, leaving their son at home.

"He had a number of friends round, one of the friends invited his own cousin to come and that was the defendant.

"The defendant arrived drunk. He said the son of the occupants' went upstairs to watch a film with his friends and fell asleep.

Mr Ellwood said: "At about 4.30 in the morning, they heard loud banging and when they went downstairs they found the pet two-year-old tortoise smashed to pieces in the conservatory, and the defendant sitting with a baseball bat in his hands."

Winspear, of Arncliffe Gardens, Hartlepool, said he could not remember what happened.

John Relton, mitigating, said Winspear is "ashamed" and is "full of remorse".

He added: "How it happened and why it happened remains an absolute mystery to my client.

"There's nothing previously to suggest that he is capable of what's described to you."

Chairman of the bench Keith Kitching said: "I want you to be aware that we as a bench cannot rule out custody."

Winspear will return to court to be sentenced on MArch 23.