A PIGEON had its head torn off by a teenager in a busy shopping street, a court was told.

Frankie Pearson, 19, left Yates's Wine Lodge, in North Road, Durham, took the bird, pulled its head off then put it in a bin and returned to the bar, said Sharon Nevison, prosecuting.

Consett magistrates heard that Pearson claimed he was only trying to end the bird's suffering because it was injured after a man had been kicking it down the street.

Ms Nevison said: "The man was seen to pull the head from the bird, removing it from its torso."

She added: "There was a degree of high jinks and he accepts that it was inappropriate to put it out of its misery at that point in time."

Police were called after security TV operator John Hewitt captured the incident on film.

A statement from Mr Hewitt said: "I felt physically sick for this to happen in a public place where there were women and children about."

Steve Kettlewell, in mitigation, said Pearson had owned pigeons and was acting to end the bird's suffering.

He said: "The man who brought it over to the window had been kicking it down the street. He (Pearson) believed that, given the state of the bird, it was badly injured."

Pearson of Vicarage Flats, Brandon, near Durham, admitted behaviour that caused harassment, alarm or distress during the incident on August 6.

He was sentenced to an 18-month community order and ordered to pay £55 costs.