A rapist who decapitated and cooked his son's rabbit armed himself with a broken glass bottle during a fight on a night out.
Billy Rutter was previously jailed for a sickening sexual assault on a schoolgirl and was most recently locked up after killing the pet, throwing its severed head at his ex-girlfriend and roasting it in the oven. He is now behind bars again after police spotted him arming himself amid an altercation outside a Revolution bar in Liverpool city centre.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Monday, the police on patrol on Victoria Street at around 1.15am on December 11 last year heard glass smashing then saw the drunken defendant holding a shattered bottle. Matthew Conway, prosecuting, described how Rutter - of Mackenzie Road in Leasowe, Wirral - hid the item behind his back then walked towards Temple Court, approaching a group of strangers outside Revolution.
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A verbal altercation ensued, with the improvised weapon still concealed behind the 35-year-old's back. The court was told that he had been involved in another argument with them moments beforehand.
The officers then ran up behind Rutter and tackled him. He "immediately" dropped the improvised weapon to the ground.
The sex offender has a total of 18 previous convictions for 36 offences including for possession of an offensive weapon in a public place in 1999, assault with intent to rob in 2012 and being jailed for six months for possession of a bladed article in a public place in August 2020. In 2005, Rutter was found guilty of raping a 14-year-old who he stalked and assaulted as she waited for a lift home from her mum.
Then aged 17, targeted the girl as she waited at a bus stop on Eastern Avenue in Speke - grabbing the youngster and dragging her to nearby waste ground. She screamed in terror, but he placed his hand over her mouth and raped her.
When convicted, Rutter pointed to the jury and said "I know all your faces" - which reduced one female juror to tears. His brother shouted from the public gallery and was thrown out of court before the teen was handed nine years behind bars.
In February 2021, he was then imprisoned for 15 months after pleading guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, assault and breaching a restraining order. It came after his former partner was forced to flee her home with their children after she discovered Rutter cooking their rabbit in her oven, having decapitated the pet and thrown its head at her while she lay in bed - landing on her pillow.
The mum called police from a payphone as her son repeated "I miss my bunny". The abuser had nailed the rabbit above the kitchen door in a scene one police officer described as "one of the most distressing sights he had ever seen".
Rutter told PCs "rabbits and chicks get slaughtered everyday" then added: "Bubble and squeak, have you ever tried rabbit? It's lovely."
He later claimed he had been drinking at his brother's home, and when he crept into the woman's house in Birkenhead while she and the two kids slept he had "stepped on the rabbit by mistake and saw it fitting in distress and wanted to put it out of its misery". Rutter stated that his ex did not believe him, so he decided to "get the rabbit's head to show her" and that he "didn't want to waste the rabbit so decided to skin it and cook it".
Rebecca Butler, defending, told the court today that her client's mum had recently died while he has acted as a carer to his dad - who suffers from "severe arthritis". He was "about to take over the family business" before his arrest.
Ms Butler added: "The memory of that night is vague for the defendant. It was a stupid mistake, and he reacted in a way he shouldn't have.
"He states he was assaulted and reacted badly. What was the intention thereafter, he has to admit."
Rutter admitted possession of an offensive weapon in a public place during an earlier hearing. Appearing via video link to HMP Altcourse, he was jailed for eight months.
Sentencing, Recorder Kate Cornell said: "I accept your genuine remorse and the fact you have not sought to minimise your offence. Had police not acted so quickly, who knows what might have happened.
"There was a real risk of serious disorder had you been able to the weapon as you intended when lots of people were around simply enjoying a night out. Had it not been for the actions of the police officers, who knows where you would be now."
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