This week we've reported on the plight of Chunky, the chihuahua cross.

He was stolen from the garden of his owners before being set on fire, drugged, tortured and beaten so hard it broke his neck and his leg.

He was then dumped at a rubbish tip in Margate before being found the following evening by a passerby who rescued him.

The RSPCA inspector in charge of the investigation said it was one of the most disturbing cases of abuse they had ever seen.

His story, which you can read here and here is a shocking one.

Readers have struggled to understand how four youths, three aged 16 and one aged 15, could be so vicious, so cruel and so savage.

They have struggled to understand the leniency with which they were treated by the courts.

And they have struggled to understand why we have not named and shamed them.

Put simply, the law does not allow us to and if we did we would be prosecuted.

That will not change no matter how many readers email our reporter to accuse him of cowardice and take to social media to do the same.

The fact is those readers that are sharing the names and pictures of the teenagers involved on the internet are at risk of prosecution themselves.

And by posting messages about what they would like to do them, you could find yourself facing a fine or worse. One man has already been given a fixed penalty notice for threatening behaviour.

In that instance it might be you appearing in the newspaper or on our website.

Sometimes it feels there is one rule for established media and another for the wild west that is the internet.

There isn't. Be warned.