CONTENT WARNING – VIDEO SHOWS GRAPHIC ANIMAL CRUELTY. .Shaun Mark Fussell from Treharris, Lee Edward Jones from Merthyr Tydfil and William Christopher Morgan from Mountain pleaded guilty to causing the unnecessary suffering of a rat after a video was posted online showing the animal being hit on the head and forced into an air compressor.

The footage, which was viewed more than 5,000 times on Facebook , then shows the rat shot out of the compressor into the air and over a neighbouring building.

The rat was never found.

The men were fined and given a community order.