Police in Northern Ireland arrested a man for hurting his girlfriend and torturing her pet snake.

Shane Cooke bit his girlfriend Coleen McGleenon 's pet snake in half during a fight and remarked that it "tasted lovely," lawyers testified Friday.

The 33-year-old bricklayer was arraigned in Belfast High Court on charges of assaulting her girlfriend and fatally torturing her royal python Aug. 4.

Cooke confessed to head-butting her girlfriend twice and biting her snake because he knew it was her girlfriend's favorite.

According to court records, Cooke, who hails from the border village of Keady, put the snake's head in his mouth and threw its severed head at her saying, "Your snake tasted lovely."

Cooke's lawyer, Adrian Higgins told the Associated Press his client had been consuming alcoholic drinks for several hours before the attack.