Thug who beat puppy to death sent back to jail for probation breach

As well as being handed a weekend stay at Maghaberry Prison, Kyle Keegan was handed an £80 fixed penalty notice for littering after he flicked away a cigarette butt outside Craigavon courthouse while waiting for his case to be called.

Keegan, from Gilpins Manor in Lurgan, appeared in court on Friday for breaching a drug offence probation order.

Revoking the 18-month order and replacing it with a two-month jail term, a judge said the defendant had been warned of the consequences of breaking the terms of his release.

He granted an application for bail but ordered that the puppy killer not be released.

Keegan was handed 18 months of probation and 80 hours of community service last May after admitting possessing the Class C drug pregabalin in July 2021.

The charge arose after he was caught with a handful of tablets in his pocket when the police stopped a car in which he was a passenger.

Sentencing him, a judge said: “This is the last chance you are going to get to rehabilitate yourself in the community, so I suggest you grab it with both hands.”

Keegan hit the headlines four years ago after he was jailed for killing an 11-week-old cross-breed puppy in February 2018, using a claw hammer to smash its skull in.

A court was told Keegan had consumed “very substantial amounts” of alcohol and drugs while at a house party at before the attack.

A day before he was due to go on trial, Keegan pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to the dog.

Its body lay undiscovered, wrapped in a plastic bag and dumped in a wheelie bin, for two days before discovered by the distraught owner.

Jailing Keegan for 15 months and ordering him to spend a further 15 months on supervised licence, a judge told him his crime was “vile, violent and savage”.