You may remember the viral news story of West Ham defender Kurt Zouma kicking his Bengal cat in the living room and slapping the cat in the kitchen while the cat was in the arms of his son as I recall. I think that's an example of child abuse as well as cat abuse but that aspect of the video was not addressed.
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| Photo: DANIEL LEAL /AFP |
The video was made and uploaded to social media by his brother Yoan. Both of them pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, Kurt to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a cat under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and Yoan to aiding and abetting.
His brother admitted one count of aiding, abetting and counselling or procuring his older brother to commit an offence and was ordered to carry out 140 hours-community service.
Kurt Zouma was ordered to pay £9000 in costs. A West Ham club spokesman said that they condemn "in the strongest terms any form of animal abuse or cruelty. This type of behaviour is unacceptable and is not in line with the values of the football club."
To play the video below: click center play button followed by the play button bottom-left 😎. Yeh, it's two stage at the moment but it should work!
Zouma was fined by West Ham football club two weeks salary amounting to £250,000, as I recall. Perhaps it was one week salary, I'm unsure but he was fined heavily but of course he is a France international football and therefore paid very well, extraordinarily well as all premiership footballers are by his club.
RELATED: RSPCA prosecute Kurt Zouma and his brother Yoan under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
West Ham never suspended him from playing for the club. There was criticism of that. And the West Ham supporters took the Mickey out of him and the crime as it happens. That wasn't a great response in my opinion.
The judge at the Magistrates' Court made very important point. Because Zuma and his brother are role models for many young people, they have to carry the burden of the added responsibility of behaving to a high standard when not playing football.
The judge did say that both of them had expressed genuine remorse but said: "You must be aware that others look up to you and many young people aspire to emulate you."
Update 10 months later 05/11/22: The Guardian newspaper updates us on this saga. West Ham's Kurt Zouma is in the news today. He is showing great remorse. He said: "I have done something very bad. I have great remorse".
He also said: "It’s been a difficult spell for me and my family. Obviously, I have done something very bad, and I apologise again for what I’ve done. I know it was very tough for people to watch and to see that and obviously I feel very, very sorry."
And further he said: "I have great remorse about it and now I’m trying to move on with my family and looking ahead. I learned from it, that’s the most important thing, I would say. Obviously, I had support from many, many people around me who helped me stay focused on football and I try to stay happy.
“The club has been unbelievable with me, the support that I received from my teammates, from the staff, and everyone at the club, and even from the fans, has been unreal, and they helped me stay focused on the game, to try to do my best on the pitch all the time and, obviously, I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done. This club is like my family.”
There you are - an update. I wonder like anybody else whether his expressions of remorse are genuine or whether he is saying it to try and regain some of his popularity. His character has been besmirched by his behaviour and I'm sure that he wants to turn the clock back.
