A security guard has gone on trial accused of killing and injuring 16 cats in a spate of attacks that left police stumped for months.
Detectives in the UK had struggled to identify the attacker after receiving anguished reports from owners of nine pets that had been killed, and a further seven injured, in October 2018 and July 2019.
A court heard that despite the force launching an operation to investigate the deaths in Brighton and Hove, no suspect was identified until a CCTV system set up by an owner of a slain cat appeared to capture on camera a different attack, on a nine-month-old kitten.
Rowan Jenkins, prosecuting, told jurors: “In 2018 Sussex police commenced what became a major investigation following reports of domestic cats being targeted and deliberately stabbed in Brighton. Sometimes owners … found that their cats were still alive and were able to take timely action to try and save them by rushing them to their vets.”
Steve Bouquet, 54, a shopping mall security guard from Brighton, previously pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of criminal damage in relation to cats and one count of possession of a knife. He did not appear at Chichester crown court on Tuesday and the trial went ahead in his absence.
Jenkins said: “By targeting pets, whoever was responsible was not of course just causing suffering for the animals themselves. You can imagine the actions caused understandable trauma to owners, many of whom were greatly affected both emotionally and, secondarily perhaps, financially.”
He said the wounds were “penetrative and clean”, and caused by a sharp article such as a knife.
CCTV footage allegedly implicating Bouquet in the attacks emerged after one pet owner, Stewart Montgomery, spotted a camera near a trail of blood outside his house where his kitten, Hendrix, had been stabbed with a knife. The camera had been erected by a neighbour whose cat had been killed the year before, the court heard.
The court heard that the footage was said to show Bouquet stroking a cat and taking something from his rucksack before making a “sudden jerk” with his arm. “This is the moment we say that the defendant stabs Hendrix with some force,” Jenkins said.
The trial continues.
