A RETIRED police chief's son who slashed a puppy's throat 15 times with a craft knife has been jailed.

Bury travel guide Gareth Robins, aged 24, was arrested last year after the five-month-old pup named Ben was taken to a vet. It had horrific neck wounds which needed 40 stitches.

Robins later appeared in court, was convicted of two charges of cruelty and sentenced to two months jail by magistrates.

But when he protested his innocence and mounted an appeal, his ex-wife Shelley, aged 25, approached RSPCA officers with new information linking him to the deaths of four other family pets.

She told them how over a 30-month period, three kittens and a Labrador-type puppy met bizarre fates when left with Robins at the couple's former home in Middleton Road, Chadderton, near Oldham.

He claimed one kitten died after trapping its paw in a back door and a second died after it fell off a wall and broke its back.

A third died after contracting a fIu-type infection, despite Robins attempting to give it the kiss of life. A 10-week-old Labrador puppy was said by Robins to have fallen down the stairs and broken its back.

A fifth animal, a hamster called Madge, got its fur singed when its cage burned in a mysterious accident with a candle.

Relatives described Robins as a "sick and cruel psychopath" who once stabbed Shelley in the back with a knife during their marriage.

She finally left him three days after he slashed Ben's throat but was too frightened of him to report the other incidents, the court heard.

The bodies of the animals were spirited away by Robins before Shelley could see them and two are believed to be buried in his father's back garden.

Ben's windpipe and jugular veins became exposed in the attack. It lost between 50 and 60 mls of blood but is now making a good recovery and is living with a new owner.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, appeal court judge Mr Recorder Mukhtar Hussain QC, sitting with two magistrates, dismissed Robins' appeal against conviction and he was ordered to serve two months.

Robins, now of Heywood Road, Prestwich, was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years.

After the hearing, RSPCA Chief Supt Phil Wilson said: "This was an horrendous attack on a tiny defenceless animal which was extremely lucky to have survived. I cannot imagine what goes through the mind of somebody who would do that sort of thing. This sentence should serve as a warning to others."

Gareth Robins' father, Gordon, is a retired Chief Inspector with Greater Manchester Police. His brother Mark was a former Manchester United footballer who won an FA Cup winner's medal in 1990.

RSPCA officials were called in after a vet who treated the wounded animal, said the numerous parallel slash marks, just centimetres apart, had been caused deliberately and with a razor-sharp blade such as a Stanley knife.

Paul Taylor, counsel for the RSPCA, said by the time Ben was treated, his injuries were two hours old. Robins and a pal initially went to a police station claiming Ben was a stray they found in the road.

Robins later told RSCPA officials the dog had escaped from his house and must have been attacked by somebody else.