Two teenagers have appeared in court accused of injuring a snake on an Aberdeen street – by throwing it.
The pair both denied the charge against them when they appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court over an incident earlier this year which left a boa constrictor injured.
The snake, called Esmerelda, later died.
Frankie Kane, 19, and Yasmin Walker, known as Doherty, 18, pled not guilty to the charge against them.
It is alleged that on July 4 at Marischal Court the duo caused the snake “unnecessary suffering”.
Prosecutors claim the teenagers seized the reptile and went on to “spin said snake around” and throw it. It is said that, as a result, the snake was injured.
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The pair appeared before Sheriff Graham Buchanan.
Their case was continued, and Kane, of Printfield Walk, Aberdeen, and Walker, of Marischal Court, Aberdeen, will appear in court again in January for a pre-trial hearing.
The trial date was fixed for February.
The Scottish SPCA had launched an investigation after the snake was taken to its rescue centre in Drumoak having being handed in to police.
Esmerelda had escaped from her home at Marischal Court and her owner, Robert Norman, assumed the three-year-old snake had slithered through an open window on to the street below.