A WOMAN used scissors and a knife to decapitate her two pet snakes before putting the heads in the pockets of her jogging trousers, a court heard.

Jennifer Jeane Lampe, who had been drinking heavily, was found by police covered in blood in a bedroom at her sister's Church Stretton home.

The 28-year-old killed the boa constrictor and bull python because she thought she was about to be made homeless and would not be able to look after the snakes.

Magistrates at Telford last week adjourned the case for reports until August 18 and warned Lampe she could face a prison sentence.

Lampe, formerly of Prees Heath, Whitchurch, and now of Shropshire Street, Market Drayton, had pleaded guilty to two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

The court heard the incident happened while Lampe was living at her sister's home in Essex Road, Church Stretton, in April this year.

Mr Roger Price, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said Lampe had been at her sister's home for about a year but there was friction because she did not get on with her sister's boyfriend.

He said matters came to a head on April 8 after the defendant had consumed a quantity of alcohol - three cans of Stella, four cans of Carling, a shot of amaretto and a shot of whisky - and became hysterical.

"She went into the kitchen, took some scissors and a knife out of a kitchen drawer, before going to a bedroom where she kept the two snakes.

"When her sister went to see her she saw the defendant with the snakes, a boa constrictor which was about two metres long, and a bull python, about one-and-a-half metres long," said Mr Price.

At this point Lampe's sister and her boyfriend and her children left the house and alerted the police.

"When the police arrived they found the defendant with the boa constrictor around her neck, still moving but without its head.

"She had the two heads of the snakes in her jogging trouser pockets. The small snake was in her bedroom, also decapitated," said Mr Price.

Lampe was arrested and later admitted what had she had done and said she thought she was going to be asked to leave the house and did not believe her sister could look after the snakes and that she would not be able to keep them if she was on the streets.