Mother shopped teenage son to police after finding a video of him swinging her cat by its tail

Mum-of-four Karen Ridley was horrified when she discovered the sickening footage on her son Matthew's mobile phone.

She threw her cruel son out of the family home, reported him to the police and then rang the Army, where he hopes to work, and told them what he had done to the helpless animal.

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The appalling minute-long clip, filmed by the teenager's friend, shows 13-year-old Belle, a black and white house cat, screeching in pain as the intoxicated teenager swings her by her tail.

Matthew, 19, was sentenced to 250 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £45 costs by magistrates in Preston, Lancs, after pleading guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

Distraught Mrs Ridley, who has two other cats named Sutty and Tickles, discovered the clip when she began flicking through his phone after she found it at their Preston home.

She said: "I went absolutely berserk when I saw the clip. We have had Belle since she was a kitten.

"Me and my husband Mick are cat lovers. We can't believe Matthew would do this - her tail has been sore since she trapped it in the door a couple of years ago.

"When I watched the clip, a few days after it was filmed, I was shaking and couldn't watch it to the end.

"He was chasing her around the house then he shouted "I've got her". The cat was screaming and it went right through me."

She added: "We are speaking to Matthew now but I don't trust him around her. She hasn't recovered and keeps pulling all her fur out."

The teenager, now living with his gradmother, said after the case he was "remorseful" at the incident and insisted the pet was now okay.

He added: "I didn't remember doing it but when my mum described the clip it all came back to me. I got home and she went mental.

"The cat was fine afterwards, it just scuttled off. She still sits on my knee." Matthew said he planned to go into the army after completing the lengthy court order.

But his mother revealed: "I was so angry I also rang the army to tell them what he had done."