A woman poisoned her neighbour's cat after finding animal droppings on the roof of her shed.

Pamela Mass, 55, admitted placing slug pellets in her garden and outside her back gate.

She said it was "a very unfortunate accident" some were eaten by a ginger cat in the same street.

The day before Ginger was poisoned, Mass, of Woodard Road, Lancing, asked next-door neighbour Jane Maltman if she had been throwing cat faeces on to the roof of her shed.

Mass told Mrs Maltman cats had been defecating in her garden. When Mrs Maltman replied there was little she could do, Mass allegedly said she would sort it out herself, Worthing magistrates heard.

The next day, June 22, Mrs Maltman saw friend Carla Street's cat lying outside Mass's back gate, twitching, with pale gums and its face covered in mud.

Nearby she found scraps of meat which she claimed had slug pellets pushed inside.

A vet confirmed the cat, which had recently given birth to three kittens, had eaten poison.

RSPCA solicitor David Buck said: "Mrs Maltman noticed blue slug pellets coming out from under the gate of Miss Mass's house.

"On the evening of June 21 her son, Stuart Maltman, saw the defendant and an unknown man with a torch looking into a garden nearby and saw the defendant go into the alleyway behind her house and stop.

"When the ginger cat was found the next day it was at the same point where the defendant had been seen standing with a torch."

Mass pleaded guilty to knowingly placing upon any land edible matter which had been rendered poisonous.

Mass said she had used the pellets to kill slugs. Those outside her gate were the result of her throwing some in a fit of temper on seeing her rubbish bags had been ripped open by animals.

Richard Martin, defending, said: "Miss Mass's garden had been very attractive to cats and other animals as a place to defecate.

"Last June she did some garden work to keep grass at a very short level to make it less attractive to animals.

"She was going to plant some shrubs along the borders and she purchased some slug pellets to rid the garden of slugs before planting the borders.

"She fully accepts she didn't read the instructions. She carelessly assumed she could scatter them where she wanted.

"She did not embed the slug pellets in meat. She is pleading guilty only to placing the slug pellets. She assumes the meat came from her bag of rubbish that was ripped open.

"Miss Mass is a previous owner of domestic animals and has been upset about what happened to the cat. She accepts she has done something rather stupid."

After the case, Ginger's owner said: "She's never recovered from this. She is uncoordinated and very nervous now."

Mass was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £400 and Mrs Street's veterinary bills of £139.20.