A UK working holidaymaker has been denied bail in Western Australia after being accused of killing a one-year-old kelpie. Police allege Bradley Gavin Knoesen repeatedly held the dog underwater, then struck it with a glass bottle after a witness revived it; prosecutors say he later tied its body to a motorbike and dragged it through bushland.

Knoesen, 31, appeared at Kalgoorlie Magistrates’ Court, about 600 kilometres east of Perth, and did not enter a plea to a charge of causing unnecessary harm to an animal. Prosecutors opposed bail, citing concern he might leave Australia; the magistrate refused it, noting the seriousness of the allegations. The case is due back in court on 12 October.