A father who drunkenly threw his daughter’s pet kittens into the River Thames has avoided prison.

Andrew Shephard, 59, was helping his daughter rehome the three young cats when he tipped them from a box into the water from Twickenham Bridge, south-west London, last November.

As he did, he could be heard shouting ‘let them die’ and ‘I want them to die’, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court heard.

Shephard, who previously pleaded guilty to three counts of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, had said he did not know ‘what came over me’.

During his sentencing hearing, prosecutor Manisha Kukadia told the court that the police were called to ‘reports of a male throwing cats into the River Thames’.

There were three kittens in total, and while one was saved before it fell in, the other two were ‘wet and muddy’ but alive when they were found by police officers.

The animals were both said to be ‘in shock’, and their temperature had dropped below 33°C.

The kittens belonged to Shephard’s daughter, who had given them to her father to help rehome them.

Ms Kukadia said the defendant’s daughter was ‘not aware’ of his actions in relation to the incident on the bridge.

After the incident, Shephard spoke to police and told them ‘he felt bad about the situation’ and admitted he was ‘very drunk at the time’.

The prosecutor said: ‘There was a clear intention for the kittens to be killed so it’s extreme and deliberate in nature. The aggravating factor… is the fact that there was use of alcohol at the time – he did say he was intoxicated.’

The defendant, who represented himself, told the court: ‘I feel bad for what I done. I’m not normally like that. I just don’t know what came over me at the time. I was incapacitated by alcohol.’

Addressing the defendant, magistrate Elizabeth Evans JP said: ‘It’s quite clear that this crosses the custody threshold – it’s serious enough in sentencing terms to justify a prison sentence.’

Ms Evans said, however, that his sentence will be suspended, adding that the probation service believes the defendant has a ‘good chance of rehabilitation’.

Shephard, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 17 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for a period of 18 months.

He must also complete 30 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days, pay a £154 surcharge, and pay £85 costs.

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota and federal authorities are investigating the alleged beating of a Mexican citizen by immigration officers last month, seeking to identify what caused the eight skull fractures that landed the man in the intensive care unit of a Minneapolis hospital.

Investigators from the St. Paul Police Department and FBI last week canvassed the shopping center parking lot where Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wrested him from a vehicle, threw him to the ground and repeatedly struck him in the head with a steel baton.

ICE has blamed Castañeda Mondragón for his own injuries, saying he attempted to flee while handcuffed and “fell and hit his head against a concrete wall.”

But hospital staff who treated the man told The Associated Press such a fall could not plausibly account for the man’s brain hemorrhaging and fragmented memory. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back and both sides of his skull — injuries a doctor told the AP were inconsistent with a fall.

Earlier this month, the AP published an interview with Castañeda Mondragón in which he said the arresting officers had been “racist” and “ started beating me right away when they arrested me.” His lawyers have contended ICE racially profiled him.

In separate visits to the shopping center last week, local and federal investigators requested surveillance footage from at least two businesses, whose employees told the AP their cameras either did not capture the Jan. 8 arrest or the images had been overwritten because more than a month passed before law enforcement asked for the video.

Johnny Ratana, who owns Teepwo Market, an Asian grocery store that faces the parking lot where the arrest occurred, said St. Paul police twice sent investigators to the business in recent days. The second time, he said, a data technician sought to recover images automatically overwritten after 30 days.

Ratana said he also was visited by FBI agents interested in the same footage.

The St. Paul Police Department did not respond to requests for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

The investigations come amid another federal probe into whether two ICE officers lied under oath about a shooting in Minneapolis. Federal prosecutors dropped charges against two Venezuelan men — who had been accused of attacking one of the officers with a snow shovel and broom handle — after video evidence contradicted the officers’ sworn testimony.

The FBI, meanwhile, notified Minnesota authorities last week it would not share any information or evidence it collected in the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers. That killing is the subject of a Justice Department civil rights investigation.

For weeks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security refused to discuss any aspect of Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries. It has not answered detailed questions from the AP, including whether its officers recorded body-worn camera footage of the arrest.

Agency insists man injured himself

But the agency last week doubled down on its claim that Castañeda Mondragón injured himself.

“On January 8, 2026, ICE conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest Alberto Castaneda Mondragon, a 31-year-old illegal alien from Mexico who overstayed his visa,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs “While in handcuffs, Castaneda attempted to escape custody and ran toward a main highway. While running, Castaneda fell and hit his head against a concrete wall.”

McLaughlin’s assertion that Castañeda Mondragón had been targeted for removal was contradicted by a Jan. 20 court filing in which ICE said officers only determined the man overstayed his work visa after he was in custody. McLaughlin did not respond to questions about which account was correct.

Castañeda Mondragón’s lawyers declined to comment on ICE’s statement.

Delay could affect investigations

The criminal investigations could be complicated by the amount of time it took law enforcement to look into the arrest, even as several elected officials called for answers.

St. Paul police told the AP on Feb. 5 that it was aware of “the serious allegations” surrounding the arrest but that it could not begin investigating Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries until he filed a police report — a step that was delayed weeks because of the man’s hospitalization and uncertainty over his immigration status. Police finally took his statement a week ago at the Mexican consulate.

By that point, at least one nearby business had overwritten its surveillance footage.

“It is my expectation that we will investigate past and future allegations of criminal conduct by federal agents to seek the truth and hold accountable anyone who has violated Minnesota law,” John Choi, the chief prosecutor of Ramsey County, said in a statement.

Castañeda Mondragón has been summoned to meet with ICE on Feb. 23 at its main detention facility in Minneapolis, raising the potential he could be taken back into custody and deported.

___ Biesecker reported from Washington and Brook from New Orleans. AP reporter Cedar Attanasio contributed from Seattle.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a complaint raised by a daughter over her mother’s care at Aria Court in March.

A care home in March “failed to provide a good standard of care” to a former resident, and lost some of their personal jewellery after they died. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that staff at Aria Court did not feed the woman in their care in the way they should have done, causing distress to her family.

The Ombudsman upheld a complaint against Cambridgeshire County Council due to the failings of the commissioned care provider. The county council said it is working with the care provider to ensure steps are taken to reduce the risk of something similar happening again. The management at the care home has also since changed.

The Ombudsman report said the woman, referred to as Mrs X, moved into the care home in October 2024. It explained that she had dementia and was no longer able to speak or feed herself.

The report stated that Mrs X’s care plan explained that she needed one-to-one assistance to eat and drink, and that each hour she should be encouraged to drink. Her care plan also set out that when being fed she needed to be carefully positioned sitting up in her bed with pillows at her sides to support her.

However, Mrs X’s daughter, referred to as Ms B, raised concerns after visiting her mother and noticing that in the two hours she was there no staff came to check on her mother or offer her a drink as required. The following day Mrs X was admitted to hospital with dehydration and suspected sepsis.

The family spoke about the issue with Mrs X’s social worker, who spoke to the team leader at the care home setting out the guidance for how to help Mrs X eat and drink when she was discharged. Mrs X was discharged back to the care home on October 29, but was readmitted to hospital the next day.

She later returned to the care home in November, where her family continued to notice ongoing problems with their mother’s care. The Ombudsman report said Ms B has photographic evidence of care workers trying to feed her mother with her head down, and said at times Ms B saw staff trying to feed Mrs X while she was lying on her side.

The report said Ms B raised these concerns with the care home. Mrs X’s social worker also went on to raise concerns, highlighting that they had noticed staff trying to feed Mrs X whilst she was in a “reclined side laying position” stressing that this was “unsafe”.

The care provider later replied to the social worker stating that staff were now making sure Mrs X was in the correct position before eating, and was being offered regular drinks. However, Ms B said that on a visit in December they found Mrs X “being fed on her side, head down” and that no one tried to offer her mother a drink while she was there.

Ms B also claimed staff openly talking in front of her mother about the end of life medication they were giving her, and saw staff giving Mrs X large spoonfuls of medication and not waiting for her to swallow before “pushing” in another.

Ms B said she also saw staff filling out a 30 minute observation sheet prospectively, and later saw a care worker enter her mother’s room at 8pm and fill out the observation for 7.30pm, when she knew they had not been there, as she had been in her mother’s room at that time.

Mrs X died in January 2025. After she passed away her daughter said rings her mother had worn on her left hand were missing and that the care manager had not been able to find them.

The Ombudsman report said the care provider acknowledged it had not always responded to Ms B’s contacts, and agreed that sight charts had been completed retrospectively and apologised for this. The report also said the care provider had acknowledged some of Mrs X’s jewellery remained missing.

After Ms B complained to the Ombudsman the issues were highlighted to the county council, which said it had not seen the complaint before, although the care provider was required to notify its contacts manager about any complaints.

The county council told the Ombudsman that the management at the care home had changed, and the home was also seeking to improve staff knowledge of the need to maintain proper records.

‘Family caused distress to see failings in mother’s care’

The Ombudsman report said: “There were concerns voiced by Ms B about Mrs X’s positioning for feeding from her readmission to the home in November. Despite the care plan and the discharge note from the hospital, care workers continued to try and feed Mrs X when she was poorly positioned.

“That was a potential breach of the regulations, it was not treating Mrs X with dignity, it failed to meet her nutritional needs properly and it was not appropriate for her needs. It caused Ms B and Mr X [Mrs X’s husband] significant distress to see it continuing.

“The care provider acknowledges it failed to maintain records properly, or communicate properly with Mrs X’s family. That was also a potential breach of the regulations. Inaccurate records for one resident cast doubt on the entirety of the care provider’s recording system.

“The missing jewellery is a further distressing event for Ms B and Mr X. While it may not be possible for the care provider to trace that now, there should have been an accurate record of where it was.”

The Ombudsman said the county council needed to continue to review with the home’s current management the concerns about adherence to the guidance for caring for residents and how training can be provided.

It also said the authority should offer £500 each to Ms B and Mr X in recognition of the “distress they suffered witnessing the care provider’s failures to treat Mrs X correctly”.

The Ombudsman also said a further £250 should be offered to Ms B in recognition of the time and trouble she had been through in making the complaint.

A spokesperson for the county council said: “We accept the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who has identified shortcomings in the service provided to this family and we are complying with all their recommendations.

“The care provider has acknowledged their responsibility for the issues and the council has actively worked with them to ensure that steps have been taken to reduce the risk of something similar happening again. A full update on progress towards this will be provided to the Ombudsman within the three-month period specified in the decision.”

Athena Care Homes (UK) Limited, which runs Aria Court, was contacted for comment.

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