Welshman in 12 pint cider binge goat death ride

Kid-napping ends in tragedy

By Chris Williams • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 10th August 2006 10:18 GMT

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A partygoer drank 12 pints of cider, stole a goat from a smallholding and took it on a backseat joyride in a Volvo he TWOCed from a nearby farm.

The goat, an 11-month-old called Snowy, died two days after her white-knuckle ordeal.

The joyride ended when the sozzled Swansea man piled the car into a stationary tractor and was apprehended by farmer Huw Leyshon, The BBC reports. Leyshon said: "I thought it was me who was drunk - I thought I was seeing things."

Neath magistrate's court heard Carl Anthony Myles, 20, plead guilty to aggravated vehicle theft. He conceded he had no memory of the incident, owing to the Olympian quantity of fermented apple juice he'd consumed on July 4.

Myles' defence asked: "Did you know you had a goat with you and did you have any intention of driving the vehicle on the road?" Myles replied: "No."

Sentencing Myles to 120 hours community service yesterday, District Judge Richard Williams told him: "It seems to me you did this purely out of immense stupidity." He was banned from driving for two years and ordered to pay the farmer almost £1,400 compensation.

Snowy's owner Terry Batt, who kept her as a pet for his granddaughter, said: "I've no idea why he did it. I can't make it out because there was no benefit to him whatsoever. He can't be normal to do something like that." ®

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