Leighton Allen Labute, 21, was convicted today, August 18th, for causing unnecessary pain / suffering to three hamsters.
Image source: Instagram / Leighton Labute
August 18, 2021 – 4:52 p.m.
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The Kelowna man, now 21, who recorded himself torturing three hamsters and posted the video on various social media sites “to ruin people’s day,” is considered low risk by two psychiatric reports viewed re-offending with animals or in any other criminal way.
Leighton Labute was also examined in June, just a month after he was charged with causing unnecessary pain and suffering to animals, with severe autism spectrum disorder with low IQ and the emotional development of a 12 or 13 year old. But he showed symptoms from a very young age and suffered from school. His actions were seen as a cry for attention.
All of these factors led directly to the crime, as a provincial judge heard today, August 18, when a verdict was pronounced.
Judge Paul Dohm heard today that Labute has no friends and has been bullied throughout school for failing to understand social cues.
CONTINUE READING: Kelowna man pleads guilty to torture hamsters
“He takes some pleasure in having these kinds of pictures on Reddit threads to have, as he puts it, ‘Ruin People’ Day, ‘” said Attorney General Meagan Richards and for “shocking what Mr. Labute is trying to do.” Has”. reach.”
The same doctors also made it clear that he was not a psychopath, which differentiates the circumstances of his cruelty to family pets from other cases.
Labute was sentenced today to 18 months of house arrest with curfew and an additional three years probation, both of which include numerous requirements, including not owning animals or entering premises where pets are sold or adopted .
The case has received significant public and media attention since its indictment in May 2020. These included vandalism at his parents’ home and protests outside of court after the videos and his troubling social media accounts were found.
The court noted this community and media involvement but was not seen as an attenuating factor in the conviction.
Labute’s videos were discovered by an animal rights group in the US who informed the RCMP that they tracked Labute and confiscated computer records, a “small dissecting kit” with small tweezers and scissors, and a diary showing that his hamster video was planned in advance.
He bought the three hamsters and killed them by dismembering one, drowning another, and placing the third in a microwave. He posted the video, entitled One Kid, Three Hamsters, on YouTube under his name DollyFlesh.
CONTINUE READING: Rally planned against accused animal abuser Kelowna
He told police his goal was to post them on various benign Reddit groups where people wouldn’t expect to find the pictures.
His lawyer Julian van der Walle said his client was “an open book” with the police about his intentions and actions. He admitted to the police that he had once killed a baby duck.
Investigators also revealed many disturbing pictures and comments, including the posting of a fantasy of wanting to be raped by a cute girl (Britney Spears) and other videos simulating sex with a doll.
The court heard that the police were considering child pornography charges but were unable to bring the case.
Then there were his claymation creations. While his autism deficient him in many other ways, he manifested itself in a talent and a devotion to creating things with sound. Unfortunately, what he was doing often involved violent sexual imagery, violence, and dismemberment, all part of his fascination with the macabre.
van der Walle said with some guidance and court-ordered advice that his skills could be his future, maybe in films.
“It was obviously macabre, but (those were) his attempts to get attention on the internet,” he said. “It worked. He was able to gain a remarkable number of followers for his accounts … (and) adult adults … found this material interesting enough to be followed up and commented on positively.”
His low IQ and social dysfunction also meant he had little appreciation for what he was doing. He told a psychiatrist that he didn’t think the hamsters would feel pain “because they were so small”.
When asked why he thought people were upset about what he was doing, he said he thought people who owned hamsters would be upset because they like hamsters. He also equated it with other videos he saw of people feeding small animals to snakes, etc.
CONTINUE READING: Neighbors of the accused Kelowna hamster killer protest in front of the courthouse
van der Walle said that with the sentencing conditions worked out together with the crown, Labute would be under judicial and parental supervision for 4.5 years.
“I hope the church understands that his parents are good people,” he said. “They neither deserve the condemnation of the community nor the demolition of their home.”
The family also released a statement asking for community support and permission to be left alone “so that they can live in peace as well as possible.”
“This was a desperate cry for attention from a young man of the intellectual age of 12 who had been bullied all his life for his autism. The Labutes are very fond of their son Leighton.” They vowed to keep him away from the Internet “which has so negatively affected him”.
During his imprisonment and suspended sentence, he is not allowed to have weapons, knives, drugs, scissors or tweezers, have unrestricted access to the Internet, and cannot post comments or pictures on social media. He was also directed to submit a DNA sample. He is supposed to stay in his apartment for the next 18 months with a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
van der Walle said he had no doubt the community would help keep him well monitored.
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