A 27-YEAR-OLD newspaper deliverer with learning difficulties admitted "cruelly terrifying" a pet rabbit when he torched its hutch while on his round in York.

The shaking rabbit suffered burned fur and was taken to a vet by neighbours after Gary Michael Stannard started the fire in the back garden of a house in Butcher Terrace, York.

Magistrates were told Stannard, who lives in full-time residential care in Wentworth Road, York, had had "a bad couple of days" before the incident on May 7 - a mood which had seen him convicted of arson three times previously - the last in 1993.

For damaging the hutch he was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20 for repairs.

For cruelly terrifying the rabbit, he was fined £50 and ordered to pay the vet's £7.50 bill.

Stannard, who admitted both offences, was, also ordered to pay £55 costs.

Prosecutor Steven Ovenden said Stannard had delivered a paper to the house before going into the garden and starting the fire.

When neighbours discovered the blaze - after they found Stannard at the front of the house asking for help - they rushed the rabbit to the vet. The police were called and Stannard was arrested.

At first he denied starting the fire but, at his own request, he returned to Fulford police station the next day to confess.

He admitted starting two fires in the hutch with a cigarette lighter and said he was very sorry.

Kevin Blount, defending, said: "He feels a great deal of remorse. He is extremely upset and extremely sorry."

Stannard had made "considerable progress" in the last five years to control his urge to start fires when suffering stress.

John Cusick, his carer, told the court Stannard had had to hand over the paper round - a job he enjoyed and had had to build up trust to earn.

He has been put on a curfew and is due to miss a family wedding this weekend because of his behaviour.