Severed cat head ‘carefully’ planted in children’s playground in ‘horrifying’ incident

The discovery has sparked fears it could be linked to the infamous 'UK Animal Killer'

A severed cat's head found in a children's playground in London could be the work of the infamous 'UK Animal Killer' - five years after the police investigation was closed.

A head was discovered "carefully placed" at the bottom of a popular kid’s climbing frame in Hackney, east London, on 24 April.

The RSPCA has launched an appeal for information after the discovery by a member of staff at Homerton Grove Adventure Playground.

The charity said it believes the act was deliberate and labelled it "a uniquely disturbing situation".

The head is believed to have been left between 6pm on 23 April and 3.30pm on 24 April.

Michael Harrington, an RSPCA animal rescue officer, called the incident "truly horrifying" and said the head was placed next to "one of the most used and popular" pieces of apparatus in the playground.

"This must have been a shocking discovery for the member of staff who stumbled upon it, but we are profoundly grateful that it was not found by a small child who could have been deeply traumatised." he said.

This apparently deliberate act of putting the severed limbs - and especially the head - of slaughtered animals on "display" is a key calling card for the notorious killer, campaigners said on Wednesday.

A three-year probe by the Met Police into the deaths of hundreds of animals - mostly pet cats - began in 2015, dubbed Operation Takahe.

A Royal Veterinary College expert carried out 22 post mortems on the alleged victims and found the animals were killed by blunt force trauma, then mutilated with either knives or gardening shears.

But the investigation was shelved in 2018 when experts then concluded there was no human involvement as the animals were likely run over by vehicles, then chewed by scavenging foxes.

Five years since the probe was mothballed, campaigners who began the initial investigation and collected hundreds of corpses for examination since 2014 believe the killings are still going on around the capital and the South East.

Tony Jenkins, who runs animal rescue charity South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) in south London, said there could have been more than 300 cases since the probe was dropped.

He believes the discovery in Hackney bears all the hallmarks of the attacker - initially dubbed the 'Croydon Cat Killer' when the deaths first emerged.

The 58-year-old said he has seen similar incidents where severed cat and fox heads have been left near children's playgrounds, gardens and trampolines - some in just the last few weeks.

Jenkins said: "I had a call about a cat in Beckenham [south east London] with no head about two weeks ago and one in New Addington [south London].

"The family cat was found beheaded round the back near the garages. I warned the family, because they had young children, that in most cases body parts get returned a few days or weeks later. And sure enough, the next day the head turned up where the body was found the previous day.

"She was horrified at the thought the head might come back and as it came back, it couldn't be a fox. Why would a fox take just the head and tail to eat?

Jenkins said the charity had a "lot of other heads and headless bodies found near kids' playground or near a park where kids play. We also get a lot left in school grounds, usually primary or infant schools."

He said it is a "double whammy because it horrifies the children and it horrifies the parents because they're worried about the impact of seeing the body will have on the children."

Jenkins said, a few years ago, a severed cat head was found by a woman in a playground, and decapitated foxes have been found in gardens next to trampolines in Kentish Town, north London, and Merstham, Surrey.

There could be many more cases that go unreported, Jenkins said.

"We've seen a lot of headless bodies or body parts of cats and foxes found in gardens on display in trampolines, probably because they're tall so it's obvious that kids live there so it'll definitely be seen by children.

"We just have no idea how many times a body has been left on display, but not reported because someone disposes of it."

The RSPCA, which was also involved in the investigation five years ago, would not comment on any link between this latest case and the closed probe while the investigation is ongoing.

But a spokeswoman confirmed the inspector at the scene in Hackney suspects the killing could be deliberate.

On the findings of Operation Takahe that ruled foxes mauled the roughly 400 dead animals discovered, Jenkins said: "It's not surprising there's fox DNA on the bodies because they mark their territory and food by licking, urinating or defecating on it.

"The first thing you look for when a cat is run over is scuffed claws [caused by the tarmac and the force of the impact], and in all the years I've been doing this, I can only remember one case where the cat had scuffed claws.

"The cats we've found have been young, elderly, some have lived in cul-de-sacs, not near any busy roads.

"If these deaths were all from road accidents then mutilated by foxes there would be cases in Scotland, Ireland, Wales or Europe, for that matter, where they all have cats and busy roads and foxes that can scavenge, but it doesn't happen."

It is thought the Met Police investigation was launched over fears the killer could move to attacking humans.

Jenkins said: "Over the years human deaths didn't start materialising so the investigation was dropped. He [the killer] also didn't leave any clues so it made it a difficult case to solve.

"But who's to say there isn't a serial killer out there and the bodies just haven't been found yet."

The Met Police said in 2020 that there were "no signs of human involvement in any of the CCTV and no witnesses who witnessed any human involvement" in the roughly 400 cases examined.

Some CCTV footage that was found and viewed by police showed foxes rather than human involvement, the force said.

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