A Melbourne university student who says he accidentally threw his girlfriend's cat over the balcony of their high-rise apartment will return to court as his case continues for a second day.
Cheng Lu (20) claims he had only meant to throw Chau Chau outside to "give the cat a lesson" after it scratched his leg, and had not intended for the pet to fall 45 storeys to its death.
Lu, a computer science student, is fighting charges of animal cruelty and reckless endangerment in Melbourne Magistrates Court.
"The cat liked to scratch us with his claw and at the time the cat scratched my leg and I was annoyed," he said, with the aid of a Chinese interpreter.
"I grabbed the cat and put the cat outside but I might have used a bit too much force."
Lu's then-girlfriend Kaiqi Chen said she stepped out of the shower just in time to see one-year-old Chau Chau "in the air".
"I saw the cat being thrown out," she told the court.
Lu and Ms Chen have broken up since Chau Chau died on the pavement of Elizabeth Street in April 2018.
Magistrate Constantinos Kilias is expected to make a decision on the contested hearing when it continues on Tuesday.
