Owners of ‘SHOCKED’ cats have found their beloved pets bleeding on their doorsteps in a series of attacks in Brighton, a court has heard.
One woman said, “I immediately thought it was a stab,” and described how the blood “gushed” from her 11-year-old cat, Gideon, who would later recover from his injury.
Mall security guard Steve Bouquet, from Rose Hill Terrace, is accused of killing nine cats and injuring seven others during a long and horrific party.
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The attacks left detectives puzzled for months until CCTV from a cat owner appeared to capture an attack on camera, prosecutors said.
Bouquet, 54, of Brighton, is on trial after pleading not guilty to 16 counts of criminal damage related to cats and one count of possession of a knife.
Chichester Crown Court jurors learned on Wednesday how the owners of several cats realized their pets had been injured.
Carolyn Green found her short-haired tabby cat Tommy lying on her doorstep, clearly injured, after being released about 15 minutes previously.
“I picked up Tommy and noticed blood on my t-shirt,” Ms Green said in a statement read by the prosecution, describing how she then took him to the vet for treatment.
“The vet called and reported Tommy had been stabbed – I was shocked.”
Tommy had suffered a 4cm cut, the vet found, and did not survive his injury.
Penny Vessey told the court that her fluffy black and white cat Rigby was “always incredibly friendly” and liked to lie outside the house for people to pet her.
But all of that behavior stopped after Rigby was injured on Halloween night in 2018, she said.
The area had been occupied by towers or healers and Mrs Vessey found Rigby the next morning making a meow and not acting like herself.
As Rigby has physically recovered from her injury, Ms Vessey said it was only very recently that she started engaging with people again.
In a statement read to court, Tina Randall described the moment she discovered her 11-year-old cat, Gideon, had been injured in November 2018.
“It was fading and as I lifted it up, blood gushed out.
“I immediately thought it was a stab.”
Gideon eventually recovered from the three-quarter inch injury, she told the court, and the vet’s bills for her operation have risen to over £ 1,600.
On Monday, jurors learned that after Bouquet’s arrest on June 2, 2019, police searched his home and found a knife in the kitchen.
Scientific investigations have found its DNA on the handle and DNA from a domestic cat has been found on the blade, the court said.
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Source: www.theargus.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-06-23 14:06:47
