A FARMER, who went to the Rugby League Cup Final leaving dead and dying animals on his farm, was banned for life from keeping cattle and sheep by a court which yesterday described the case as the worst it had ever encountered.

Kevin Peter Barrett, 40, was also ordered to do 240 hours of community service and pay £750 costs. He admitted three fresh offences while appearing before Harrogate magistrates who had deferred sentence for six months on 129 other charges.

Bernadette Reid, presiding, told Barrett: "In our view this is the most serious case of animal neglect that has come before this court. We find it quite appalling."

At an earlier hearing, Barrett admitted 48 charges brought under the Dogs Act and a similar number framed under the Animal Health Act involving failure to bury dead animals. He had also admitted 33 offences of causing unnecessary suffering.

Yesterday Barrett, a farmer for 20 years, pleaded guilty to a further two charges of failing to dispose of dead animals, a cow and a sheep, and one of causing unnecessary suffering to a cow.

Prosecuting for North Yorkshire Trading Standards Department, Graham Venn said the original case, which came to light on May 1 last year, was one of the worst neglect matters officers had been involved in.

And Richard Lloyd, who was called to Barrett's holding at Briscoe Rigg Farm, Briscoe Rigg Lane, Beckwithshaw, near Harrogate, said long-standing welfare problems were on a scale he had not seen in 40 years as a vet.

Carcasses of 34 cattle and 14 sheep had been found, some which had been lying there for up to two months after dying from lack of food.

Barrett, who farms a total of 200 acres at Beckwithshaw, at North Rigton and at Newby House Farm, near Harrogate, had not been there when police, RSPCA and trading standards officers found the scene of devastation. He later told investigators he had been at the RL Cup Final, adding: "I had lost it by then. I could not take any more."

Barrett's counsel, Alexandra Stewart, said he had struggled throughout the 1990s against financial pressures, family problems and depression.

Before hearing the sentence Barrett told the Bench: "I hope to be able to walk into auction rings with some good quality animals and my head held high."

He made no comment afterwards.