Kurt Zouma could face hours of "visible" work after being sentenced to community service for kicking and slapping a Bengal cat.
A shocking video of the West Ham centre-back, 27, abusing the defenceless pet went viral in February. Zouma was widely condemned for his actions - receiving a £250,000 fine from his club - and was prosecuted by the RSPCA.
Zouma pleaded guilty to two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal. The 11-cap France international was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid community work, ordered to pay costs of £8,887 and banned from owning cats for five years.
The defender could complete his community service from home due to the Covid backlog, but there's also a chance he'll be made to work in public wearing a hi-vis vest thanks to the Ministry of Justice's commitment to making offenders partake in "visible" work.
Although the MoJ were unwilling to discuss Zouma's case, a spokesperson told Mirror Football: "We’ve boosted the time spent by offenders doing tough, visible, unpaid work each year by an extra three million hours to compensate society for their crimes."
That means Zouma could be forced to pick up litter, clean graffiti or paint walls - among other tasks. More than 300,000 hours of community service have been completed at home in recent years with individuals making greeting cards, face masks and other items.
Speaking to The Sun, a whistle-blower said: "This should be a big wake-up call to anyone in the public eye that if you do bad things you’ll be treated like anyone else. If he ends up clearing out canals then he’s only got himself to blame."
The whistle-blower added: "Celebrities always seem to get better treatment when they do wrong. This time around that’s not going to happen and I’m really pleased."
Zouma was sentenced at Thames Magistrates Court earlier this month. "You kicked and slapped either the same cat or both of them - that cat looked to you to care for its needs," Judge Holdham told Zouma. "On that date in February, you didn’t provide for its needs but caused unnecessary suffering for your own amusement."
A West Ham spokesperson added: "West Ham United wishes to make clear that we 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.
"Within 48 hours of the footage emerging, we fined Kurt the maximum available to the club. Every single penny of this money is now with a number of deserving charities, all dedicated to animal welfare.
"Kurt admitted at the earliest opportunity that what he did was wrong. He has apologised without reservation. We hope that now the court has reached its decision, everyone will allow Kurt the chance to learn from his mistake and move on."
