In 2025, the Offender Database reported that Terry Thurling, the Stirling Child and Animal Abuser Chef, a convicted sex offender who beat his dog with a golf club so severely that it had to be put down, was jailed.
Terry Thurling attacked his Romanian Shepherd Dog, Griffin, with the makeshift weapon 43, was charged.
Stirling Sheriff Court was told that on April 24, the neighbour reported seeing through the windows of Terry Thurling’s flat in the St Ninians area that the dog was “running from room to room”.
Terry Thurling appeared to be striking it with something.
The neighbour then heard Griffin “crying for 20 minutes”.
Griffin, whose head was covered in blood, was described as “quiet” and was showing no signs of aggression, according to the dog wardens.
He was taken to Broadleys Veterinary Hospital in Stirling, where an X-ray found depressed fractures in his skull, and he had to be euthanised.
The court was told that an examination also found a lesion on his back consistent with a cigarette burn, though this did not figure in the charge against Terry Thurling.
Terry Thurling, an unemployed chef from St Ninians, pleaded guilty to causing Griffin unnecessary suffering.
He also appeared for sentence on a series of unrelated charges, including resisting police, assaulting a retail worker, and committing a statutory breach of the peace at a hospital.
He banned Terry Thurling from owning or keeping a dog for 15 years and sentenced him to a total of 19 months in jail.
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