A MAN who admitted leaving his cancer-stricken dog untreated and starving is facing a jail sentence.

RSPCA inspectors found 18-year-old Labrador bitch Sheba with a bleeding cancerous tumour four centimetres long on her head in Shaun Crossley-Wilson's Breightmet home.

She was found dehydrated and underweight, wedged between a window and a cushion in his front room after a tip-off from a neighbour last July, Bolton Magistrates Court heard.

The room was littered with faeces and smelt strongly of urine.

Melissa Fagan, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said Crossley-Wilson had known about Sheba's infected tumour for around six years but had not taken her to a vet for more than two years.

Miss Fagan said: "When asked why, he said it was because of the cost and because he knew she would be put down.

"He tried to maintain that he had asked other people to look after her, but that has always been denied. He accepted that the dog was his and that he had had it since it was a puppy."

The court heard Crossley-Wilson blamed Sheba's scratching on fleas. The RSPCA visited Crossley-Wilson's home in Mobberly Road on July 27 last year.

RSPCA Inspector Elizabeth Walker said in a statement: "I thought she was dead but she blinked an eye when I stroked her."

Magistrates were told Sheba's ribs were clearly visible and she had no stomach.

Miss Walker added: "She was struggling to walk and had a bleeding boil on her face." A vet diagnosed chronic weight loss and an infected tumour.

Sheba, who weighed seven kilogrammes under her desired weight and was blind and partially deaf, was later put down.

Miss Fagan added: "The vet believed that Sheba had been neglected for around three months."

Crossley-Wilson, who was not represented in court, said he had last seen Sheba on July 21. He said he had not returned home after being arrested for an unconnected matter on that day.

He told the court that he thought a neighbour was looking after Sheba.

Unemployed Crossley-Wilson, currently of the Salvation Army Hostel in Duke Street, Bolton, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to Sheba between June 27 and July 27 last year at Bolton Magistrates Court yesterday.

Three other people were questioned by the RSPCA in relation to the matter.

Magistrates told him: "We are strongly of the mind to opt for a custodial sentence."

The case was adjourned until March 14 for pre-sentence reports to be prepared.