Bloke dumped exotic snakes in bin after seeing horror electricity bill to keep them

dailystar.co.uk:

three snakes by dumping them in a bin outside of a school.Samuel Newton, 35, binned the 5ft long royal pythons he had stuffed into carrier bags after seeing the state of his electricity bill, Scarborough Magistrates Court has heard.

The 35-year-old dumped the python trio into a bin outside of St Augustine's secondary school in North Yorkshire because he hoped they would be found sooner in a public place.READ MORE: Rampaging crocodile sparked plane crash that killed 20 after being smuggled onboardNewton had cared for the snakes for years and decided a 3ft litter bin was the ideal place for them to be found, with two recovered by a "snake expert" called out by police.It wasn't until the next day that the third snake had been found, near to the same spot it had been dumped at 9am the previous day.Prosecutor Martin Butterworth said: "Fortunately, not in the school playground."The bench was told that while the snakes were not venomous, they could kill small prey via asphyxiation and that Newton had "snapped" due to the cost of living.

Presiding magistrate Alan Kay told Newton: "It's a rather bizarre matter. But it is the manner in which they were deposited outside a school which to us is a concern."Imagine a child coming across a 5ft snake.

They would not be comfortable with the situation."Newton had come forward after a police appeal, initially claiming to have asked a pal to take the snakes to a pet shop, but soon confessed that was not true after police spoke to the pet shop owner.Ian Brickman, mitigating, said: "This is a very bizarre and unusual case.