By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 10/04/2008
An Australian man has been imprisoned for a year for slaughtering a pet goat on a church altar as part of a bizarre Friday the 13th satanic ritual.
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Scott Peter Romano, 28, from Brisbane, Queensland, pleaded guilty in the city’s District Court to charges of stealing a goat, breaking into a church and killing an animal.
The court was told Romano and friends had been drinking heavily at a party on Friday October 13, 2006, when they stole the goat from a semi-rural property in Brisbane's west.
The animal had been bought as a pet for a 15-year-old girl.
They broke into a church and slit its throat on the altar in a satanic ritual. Romano said he then decapitated the goat to put it out of its misery.
The group drove to a nearby convenience store to buy a disposable camera, which they used to take photos of themselves performing lewd acts with the goat’s head. They then stored it in a freezer.
In sentencing Romano, Judge Kerry O'Brien described the killing as a "completely senseless" act which would be regarded as bizarre by any right-thinking member of the public.
Defence barrister Steve Kissick told the court his client's behaviour was "entirely out of character", and that he had volunteered to buy a new goat for its owner.
Romano will be eligible for parole in August. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/04/11/noindex/wgoat110.xml&CMP=EMC-expat2008