BABY SEALS SICK KILLER LOCKED UP; He's jailed for island massacre.

Byline: BY MAGGIE BARRY

A FISHERMAN who clubbed to death 21 grey seal pups with a fence post was yesterday jailed for 80 days.

Jimmy Stewart, 47, had admitted the sickening slaughter on the uninhabited Shetland island of East Linga.

The cruel massacre was spotted by staff on a Scottish Natural Heritage boat during a survey trip last November.

One of the pups had its face "moulded to the rock" by the force of Stewart's blows with the 6ftwooden post, Lerwick sheriff court heard last month.

Stewart told police he had been putting them out of their misery because they were suffering but postmortems revealed they had been perfectly healthy.

Jailing him, sheriff Graeme Napier said the courts would not tolerate the infliction of "such unnecessary suffering".

Stewart, of Symbister, Whalsay, could have been sent to prison for six months or fined pounds 5,000 for each pub killed.

The trawlerman, who keeps sheep on East Linga, was caught in the act as SNH headed ashore for a probe into declining seal numbers.

Duncan Mackenzie, prosecuting, said: "The pups' brains had been destroyed to a pulp. This was simply an act of wanton cruelty."

Both the SNH and police welcomed the conviction.

SNH area manager John Uttley called it a "shocking case".

And police said: "The sentence sends out a clear message to those participating in wildlife crime."

CAPTION(S):

CRUEL Culprit Jimmy Stewart