LONDON: Former security guards who oversee nine cats to death in nightnime attacks in British City Brighton was sentenced to Friday for more than five years in prison.
Steve Bouquet, 54, was convicted of attacking 16 cats, nine of them fatally, between the end of 2018 and mid-2019 at Brighton, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of London.
He was arrested after the owner of one of the dead cats made a security camera.
Bouquet denied involvement in the attack, where some cat owners found their pet bleeding on the doorstep.
But the prosecutor said a photo of a dead cat was found on his phone, and a knife with cat blood and DNA Bouquet on it was found during his home search.
He was found guilty after the trial had a blade in public and 16 accusations of criminal damage in relation to cats – crimes that carry punishment higher than cruelty towards animals.
The owner of several victims of Bouquet cats was in the Hov Crown court on Friday to see him sent to prison for five years and three months.
Judge Jeremy Gold said Bouquet’s behavior was “cruel, it was maintained and beaten in the heart of family life.” Jayne Cioffi, a senior prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service, said “none of us can understand what drives bouquet to do this on a family pet.” “This is a tragic case for all the owners involved.
Not only Steve Bouquet encouraged the terrible suffering for each of the animals he attacked, but he also caused real trauma to his owners, many of which found their beloved pets hurt and bleed,” she says.