Woman decapitated pet snakes 'with scissors and knife'

Jennifer Lampe drank lager, whiskey and amaretto before killing her pets, the court heard

A woman has admitted decapitating her pet snakes using scissors and a kitchen knife.

Jennifer Lampe was found by police with a headless snake still moving around her neck and her reptiles' severed heads in her pockets, Telford Magistrates' Court heard.

The 28-year-old said she feared she was about to be made homeless and would be unable to look after the boa constrictor and bull python.

She will be sentenced on 18 August.

Lampe had been living with her sister in Church Stretton since May last year but did not see eye-to-eye with her sister's partner, the court heard.

RSPCA prosecutor Roger Price said the defendant "became hysterical" about the friction that had built up between them on 8 April.

Amaretto and whisky

He said: "She went into the kitchen and took scissors out of the kitchen drawer, and a knife, and retreated to her bedroom, where she kept the two snakes."

Lampe's sister, who was not named in court, left the property with her boyfriend when she saw blood in her sibling's room and the police were called.

"The police then arrived and found the defendant with the boa constrictor around her neck. The bull python had also been decapitated and was still in her bedroom," Mr Price said.

The court heard Lampe, of Shropshire Street, Market Drayton, had drunk seven cans of lager and shots of amaretto and whisky before killing her pets.

She pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and was granted unconditional bail.