A PLYMOUTH man who killed his girlfriend's hamster by throwing it out of a window has been jailed for 12 weeks after breaching his suspended prison sentence.

Ryan Goodwin, aged 23, above, was sentenced to eight weeks suspended for 12 months back in August for hurling the pet in its cage from a first-floor window during a heated row with the woman.

He later admitted an offence of threatening behaviour which puts him in breach of that court order.

Magistrates have now imposed the suspended sentence in total with an extra four weeks for an earlier offence.

The court was told he had also breached a community order for making a hoax call to police in which he claimed to have been kidnapped.

Goodwin, of Delaware Gardens, Weston Mill, had earlier admitted the public order offence from September 14.

Angela Furniss, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said he had sworn and threatened a man in a pizza takeaway in Devonport.

That put him in breach of a suspended sentence for an offence of causing unnecessary suffering to a hamster.

The court heard in August that Goodwin threw Sarah Symons' hamster Kaya from the window in its cage in a row during their break-up in January. The cage shattered on impact and the animal was so badly injured it later died.

The latest hearing was told that Goodwin had also separately failed to comply with the terms of a community order for an offence of making a hoax phone call.

Probation officer Charlie Casey said Goodwin had called police to report that he had been bundled into a van and kidnapped in September last year. He added Goodwin claimed he had been driven to the middle of Cornwall and dumped in a field.

Stephen Walker, for Goodwin, said he had made the hoax call in a misguided attempt to get home from a fair where he was working in Cornwall. He added that another employee had tried to leave the previous day and had been beaten up.

Mr Walker said Goodwin hoped that the police would take him back to Plymouth so that he could escape the fair unpunished.

He said: "In many ways, he is still a child. He has committed these offences out of immaturity rather than wickedness. He does not really have delinquent thoughts."