Yorkshire college student put bleach in his parents' toothpaste tube and tortured family pets

Akeel Bavington-Allen, 19, was said to have been fascinated with knives, gang culture and drill music when he was caught with a knife on him at Shipley College in April last year.

The teenager, formerly of Great Horton in Bradford, admitted having “a shank” on him when he was challenged and claimed he was carrying the knife because he had been assaulted by a group from Leeds.

Bradford Crown Court heard today how two months later Bavington-Allen, who had stopped taking his ADHD medication, poured bleach into the family toothpaste tube at his home, but the corrosive substance was discovered before it caused any harm to anyone.

The court heard that one of the family’s chickens had also been found dead and when CCTV was checked Bavington-Allen could be seen chasing after the animals with a garden fork and stabbing one of the hens several times.

He later said he didn’t feel anything at the time and when his mobile phone was checked a video of him stabbing the family cat was also found to have been posted on Snapchat.

While on remand at HMP Doncaster, Bavington-Allen made threats to kill his parents, accusing them of being “snitches”.

In addition to his sentence in a young offenders institution Bavington-Allen was banned from going within 100 metres of his family home for the next five years and he was also banned from having direct or indirect contact with his mother.

Bavington-Allen admitted a series of offences including threats to kill, possession of a bladed article, animal cruelty and attempting to administer a noxious substance.

As part of his sentence Judge Colin Burn banned Bavington-Allen from keeping animals for the next five years.

The judge said he had to deal with Bavington-Allen for a series of disturbing and serious offences that could have resulted in serious harm to people and did result in suffering to animals.

“It is clear from what I have read that there is a lack of understanding by you as to how serious these offences are,” he told Bavington-Allen over a prison video link.

“A psychiatrist says that you do pose a fairly substantial risk of future offending as you are at the moment.

“The whole picture overall is a very worrying one and obviously a custodial sentence today of some length is inevitable.”

He said putting the bleach in the toothpaste tube was a serious matter adding: ”There was no warning at all for your parents that there was that corrosive substance in the toothpaste tube.”

The judge said Bavington-Allen had killed one of the chickens and “tortured” the family cat, but he had shown no empathy whatsoever.

Barrister Gerald Hendron, for Bavington-Allen, said his behaviour appeared to have coincided with his client no longer taking his medication.

Reports on Bavington-Allen suggested he was immature and acted impulsively.