TWO WOMEN who sadistically tortured and killed a former Carlisle soldier’s singing parrot have each been jailed.

Sparky the African grey parrot – who entertained her owner Paul Crooks and his friends with renditions of the national anthem and the Coronation Street theme tune – had her neck snapped after suffering sickening cruelty.

It was meted out by friends Nicola Bradley, 35, and Tracey Dixon, 47, both from Carlisle, who later blamed each other for Sparky’s death.

At Carlisle Crown Court, prosecutor Daniel Bramhall provided a graphic description of how the women - both of them drunk - tortured Sparky, daubing her with gloss paint, covering her with shaving foam and cleaning products – including Mr Muscle oven cleaner – and then throwing her into a switched on tumble drier.

When the bird  emerged from the machine, gasping for breath, one of the women – said in court to have been Bradley – snapped Sparky’s neck.

As they left the house where they did this, they told Sparky's unsuspecting owner they had been "wetting themselves" with laughter," though they did not say why.

Commenting on their behaviour, Judge Richard Archer told the two women: “On the day of your offending in July of last year, you together sadistically tortured  and essentially killed Sparky.

"The way in which suffering was caused to that animal is shocking

“It involved spraying her with cleaning products; it involved daubing paint on her; and it involved hitting her with a tea towel; in involved placing her in a tumble drier and turning it on and it involved, once the door to the tumbler drier was opened and Sparky was gasping for her last breath, one of you ringing her neck.”

The women made no effort to explain to Sparky’s owner Paul Crooks why they had done what they did and they sought to blame each other.

The judge added: “It is frankly beyond comprehension how anyone could treat an animal in this way, let alone in your case, Miss Dixon, someone who it is said took in animals, rescue animals, subjected to suffering at the hands of others.”

Jack Troupe, for Bradley, said she maintained her denial of wrongdoing. Due to become a grandmother in the near future, the defendant lived in social housing and depended on Universal Credit for her income.

Anthony Parkinson, for Dixon, said character references referred to her having a more kindly attitude to animals than the offending suggested. She had taken in rescue animals and cared for them in the past, said the barrister.

Mar Parkinson added: “She maintains that her co-defendant was the primary offender in this case but she accepts the verdict of the magistrates court.”

During the trial before Magistrates, Mr Crooks had described his horror at finding Sparky dead shortly after Bradley, of Welsh Road, Harraby, and Dixon, of Warnell Drive, left his home on the morning of July 30 last year.

He had allowed the women, who had enjoyed a boozy night out together in Carlisle, to stay at his home after giving them a lift from the city centre.

Describing his pet, Mr Crooks said she had been “absolutely fine.” He said of Sparky: “She used to sing a regimental march, combined with God Save the Queen, and the Coronation Street and Emmerdale theme tunes.

“She was a hit with friends as she’d start singing when I talked to them on video calls around the world.” They all loved her and looked forward to seeing her, he said.  Since his bird was killed, he had suffered panic attacks and sleepless nights.

Judge Archer said he had seen the photo of Sparky after she was killed, and he commented that the bird was “unrecognizable.” He told the women that they will both be subjected to indefinite bans on keeping or looking after any animals.

Jailing them each for 25 months, the judge said the sentence was one month over the minimum term for which a jail term can be suspended. But the judge pointed out that he would not have have suspended the jail term in any case.

He added:" This is a case where appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody...

"If an immediate prison sentence were not warranted or required for the deliberate, sadistic torture to death of an animal, then one can not imagine a case where it would be appropriate to impose an immediate custodial sentence."