IRISH WOLFHOUND SOCIETY OF IRELAND

Dogs torture claim for bank executive

Natalie Tkaczuk Sikora
June 06, 2008 12:00am


A FORMER senior bank executive tortured 13 dogs that were found dead in Bendigo bushland, a court heard yesterday.

Barry Patrick Rochford, 47, allegedly beat 11 dogs to death and inhumanely tied up two others, causing them to suffer a slow and torturous death. Nine of the dead dogs were pups.

In another incident, Mr Rochford allegedly set fire to a neighbour's haystack in which the burnt carcass of a dog was found.

Bendigo Magistrates' Court heard that in an act of vengeance against two people -- one of whom filed a civil law suit against him -- Rochford stole five Irish wolfhounds worth $12,000 belonging to them.

The court heard he sold two of them to a breeder and kept the others at properties on the outskirts of Melbourne.

One Irish wolfhound was later found tied to a tree in an isolated forest near Lake Eppalock, southeast of Bendigo, on Christmas Day last year.

The animal had been strung by a haystack rope so tightly to a tree that it died a slow, agonising death.

Another was tied to a haystack in Mandurang and abandoned until it died.

Mr Rochford, of Mandurang, was formerly Bendigo Bank's general manager for continuous improvement and a former chief executive officer of Nillumbik Shire Council.

Mr Rochford, who was arrested on Wednesday night, appeared in court yesterday facing 13 charges including six counts of animal cruelty causing death, unreasonable pain and suffering, two counts of theft, one count of arson, two counts of trespass, one count of obtaining property by deception and one count relating to possession of fuel for criminal damage.

Magistrate Richard Wright yesterday released Mr Rochford on conditional bail and ordered him to appear again in court on July 17.

Source:  The Herald Sun (Australia)

UPDATE: Bendigo Advertiser (Australia)