A man who admitted masturbating to ‘animal porn’ while holding a baby seagull has been jailed for 24 weeks.

David Lee captured the seabird and took it down a back alley in Sunderland before pulling his trousers down and masturbating with it between his legs.

The 40-year-old was later tracked down to a nearby takeaway, where he initially claimed to have been helping the baby gull by looking up a vet on his phone.

But Police later discovered Lee had been watching ‘animal porn’ during the incident, which was caught on a local resident’s CCTV camera.

Magistrates at South Tyneside Magistrate’s Court handed the 40-year-old an immediate 24-week jail term and banned him from keeping animals for 10 years.

Lee, of Roker Avenue, Sunderland, previously admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the herring gull during the incident at around 1am near Gladstone Street in Sunderland.

The incident saw Lee, who was described as a heavy drinker with unstable personality disorder, put his phone on a box in the alleyway before engaging in a sex act with the seagull and then kicking the baby bird away.

Lesley Burgess, prosecuting, said: ‘This was a deliberate and gratuitous act that caused suffering.’

Describing the incident, she said:

‘The defendant runs down the street trying to chase a seagull.

‘The footage then goes to the back alley and we see the defendant with a different, younger, baby gull in his arms.

‘We then see the defendant take his phone out of his pocket and puts it on a box.

‘He thereafter takes his trousers down, kneels down and it is very clear he is masturbating. He then goes on to move the gull between his legs.

‘For a time the defendant is engaging in a sexual act with the baby seagull.’

Ms Burgess said that when he had finished, Lee put the gull down, gave it a ‘small kick’ to shoo it away and walked off in the opposite direction.

He tried to tell police that he found the bird and picked it up because it was injured, and used his phone to find a vet.

However, Ms Burgess said:

‘Police took the phone and it was very clear he was accessing animal porn at the time.’

Ms. Burgess said the crown obtained expert evidence from a vet who said the footage showed ‘the bird will have been caused unnecessary suffering by the act that the defendant did’.

In a victim statement which was read to the court, the woman who saw the offence on her CCTV said:

‘For almost a year the actions of this person have caused me a lot of mental stress and anxiety.

‘I am still haunted by what he did. I am unable to get his horrendous actions out of my head.

‘I sincerely hope the sentence today gives justice for the bird he defiled and for people like myself who were traumatised when they saw what he did, and it is a deterrent for anyone else who thinks animal abuse is acceptable.’

Annalisa Moscardini, defending, said Lee was a heavy drinker who experienced blackouts.

‘He accepts he must have done this act but he didn’t have a good recollection of it,’ she said in explanation of his initial denials. To some extent he cannot explain what happened.’

A psychiatric report found he suffered from an unstable personality disorder and was detached from reality.

He was also a pathological liar whose lies served no purpose, the court heard.

Angela Thompson, chairman of the bench, said:

‘We find this is a deliberate attempt to cause suffering and a high level of suffering was caused.’