Who is the Croydon Cat Killer?

Mystery attacker is believed to have slaughtered around 450
cats

A cat found decapitated in Southampton appears to be the latest
victim of an attacker dubbed the Croydon Cat Killer, according to
an animal rescue centre investigating the killings.

South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (Snarl)
believes a single person is behind the deaths of hundreds of cats,
as well as foxes and rabbits. Mutilated animal corpses have been
found in locations as far afield as Manchester, Brighton and
the Isle of Wight.

“The majority of them are decapitations of heads, tails and paws
– a few of them have been cut in half,” Snarl’s Tony Jenkins told
the BBC.

“Typically, there is no blood on the scene, so they are either
killed somewhere else and then brought to the scene, or they are
killed quickly with blunt force trauma and mutilated afterwards,
which we have seen in many cases.”

In August last year, police released a description of an
individual they believe to be behind the killings. According to
witnesses, the suspect is “a white man in his 40s with short brown
hair, dressed in dark clothing, possibly with acne scarring to his
face. It also says he may be wearing a headlamp or carrying a
torch,” reported The Guardian.

Last month Vice TV released a documentary, To
Catch a Cat Killer, that followed the investigation by Snarl
founder Jenkins and his partner Boudicca Rising, working
alongside the police.

What is the history of the Croydon Cat Killer?

In December 2015, the Metropolitan Police launched an
investgation under the name Operation Takahe, led by Detective Andy
Collin, after Snarl raised concerns about a series of dead cats
found without heads and tails.

By February 2016, the deaths of ten cats (four in Croydon and
one each in Streatham, Mitcham Common, Sutton, Charlton, Peckham
and Finchley) had been linked by an examining vet, according to a
report in The Independent.

Snarl now believes that the killings go back as far as 2010.
Rising told the London Evening Standard that his
Croydon-based rescue centre had been approached by families about
killings up to three years before they began investigating.

As more decapitated cats began appearing outside the town, the
killer became known as the M25 Cat Killer and then, as the attacks
spread further, the UK Cat Killer.

Is more than one person behind the attacks?

The Vice team spoke to veterinarian Dean Lewis, who believes
that more than one person is responsible for the dead cats.

He said in the documentary: “All the animals have died of blunt
force trauma. Most of the animals have been decapitated and most of
them have had amputations.

“However, the nature of how they have been carried out has
fluctuated wildly. With the tail amputations, some of it has been
done very skillfully. Others been crushed and cut quite crudely. I
do not believe you can attribute every single cat that has been
presented to me and all the other vets to one person.”

However, Rising told the Croydon News Shopper that she believes a single
person is responsible.

She acknowledged the vet’s statement that some amputations
fluctuated but argued that “there will be a big difference in doing
something by torch light and something by electric light”.

She added: “We keep an open mind. Investigation is as much about
disproving your own theories as it is about anything else.”

Is it just animals?

So far no links have been found between the killings and any
attacks on humans.

But Detective Collin told the BBC: “Cats are
targeted because they are associated with the feminine. The killer
can’t deal with a woman or women who are troubling him.”

Collin said he was worried that “at some stage [the killer] will
escalate or feel brave enough to move on to vulnerable women and
girls”.

Vince Egan, associate professor of forensic psychology at
Nottingham University, told The Independent: “In some individuals, we have
seen animal cruelty as part of a broader pattern in which humans
are also harmed. It is far more likely that this reflects a rather
more banal pattern of anti-social behaviour, such as drunkenness or
something that doesn’t go further. But when we have so little to go
on, you have to keep your mind open.”