Farm worker who kicked pigs and struck them with a pitchfork is spared jail despite admitting eight cruelty offences

Steven Woolger, 48, was handed a 17-week custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Great Yarmouth Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to eight counts of animal cruelty at a Norfolk boar stud farm. Animal rights activists placed hidden cameras at the Innovis Gene Centre East premises in Burgh Castle, capturing 781 hours of footage between May and September 2024 that documented Woolger using a pitchfork and a plastic pipe to beat pigs, as well as kicking them. District Judge Matthew Bone stepped back from immediate imprisonment on learning that Woolger's wife had suffered a near-fatal heart attack following a premature birth, leaving him the family's sole earner under severe mental strain.

Woolger, who had worked at the farm since 2013 and had no prior criminal record, has also been banned from keeping animals.

The covert footage was gathered by the Animal Justice Project and handed to Norfolk Trading Standards, which brought the prosecution.

An MP said the conviction shows that cruelty to farmed animals carries serious consequences — though campaigners are expected to contest the decision not to impose an immediate custodial sentence.