A MOTHER who drowned eight of her pet cats one by one in a baby bath at her Bicester home has been jailed.

Over a week Julie Carter, 43, subjected each of the fully grown cats, aged between one and three, to a painful death by holding them under water.

Yesterday, Banbury magistrates sent the unemployed mother-of-one to prison for 12 weeks and imposed a lifetime ban on her keeping animals.

Carter, of Herald Way, Bicester, admitted causing unnecessary suffering by killing the animals between May 25 and June 7 this year.

The court heard a member of staff at Charter Community Housing visited the house and was struck by the smell of cat urine.

Carter was told she would have to remove some of her 11 cats and clean up the house.

But when RSPCA inspector Doug Davidson went to the premises only three cats were left. Carter later admitted she had killed the other eight.

Defending, Paul Bevan said Carter knew what she had done, but had a “limited degree of understanding”.

He said she had received threats over the case.