A drunk woman who drowned four of her friend’s cats in a bath escaped an immediate jail term by “the skin of her teeth”, magistrates said today.

Samantha Browning was handed an 18-week suspended sentence after carrying out the act at her friend’s Tipton house.

The 21-year-old metal sorter, who had returned from a party drunk and on drugs when she drowned the cats, was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years, ordered to do 180 hours unpaid work and given a two-year supervision order.

Sandwell Magistrates also told her to pay £483 costs. Browning, of Mason Street, West Bromwich, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

Passing sentence, bench chairman David Payne said: “You have escaped custody by the skin of your teeth.”

The court heard Browning held each animal under the water in turn.

The cats were killed at some point between January 1 and February 17 this year.

Mr Nick Sutton, prosecuting for the RSPCA, told the court, alcohol and drugs were ruled out as mitigation for the killings. He said: “As an act of cruelty it is difficult to imagine one more sustained and calculated.”

Mrs Helen Pinning, defending, said Browning was “extremely remorseful”.