A FORMER Birmingham General Election candidate has been jailed for battering his family’s cat to death with a walking stick.

Mike Dixon, 53, who was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Northfield at last year’s poll, killed black and white cat Tipsy with repeated blows last May.

Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court heard he “lost his temper” and clubbed the feline to death at the family home in the town after the pet scratched one of his grandchildren.

In the same month Dixon gained 6,550 votes when he stood as a Lib Dem candidate in the General Election. He came third behind the Conservative candidate Keely Huxtable and Labour MP Richard Burden.

Yesterday he admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a cat contrary to the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and was jailed for 16 weeks.

Brian McCluskie, chairman of the bench, told Dixon: “This was a prolonged and awful attack on an animal, which was a result of your inability to keep your temper.

“That resulted in the family pet being bludgeoned to death. The family pet did not die quickly. You ignored the pleas of your family and you caused horrific suffering.”

The court heard the married father-of-two killed Tipsy – which the family had kept for five years – after it scratched one of his grandchildren on May 14 last year.