Brighton Cat Killer Steve Bouquet dies while serving 5 year jail term

Law enforcement put in months chasing right after a faceless and nameless cat killer who was ultimately exposed just after he produced a single mistake, prosecutors say. 

Safety guard Steve Bouquet was ready to shift by means of the town of Brighton undetected, preying on cats in a grotesque spree that remaining 9 of the creatures useless and other folks hurt. 

As nicely as leaving owners traumatised at acquiring their beloved animals bleeding on their doorsteps, the string of assaults prompted panic and confusion in the East Sussex metropolis. 

In the stop, it was a CCTV digicam set up by one particular this sort of operator that captured Bouquet on movie – evidence prosecutors say was ‘pivotal’ in finally bringing the bloody campaign to an conclude. 

Convicted at trial of 16 offences of felony injury and possession of a knife, final calendar year Bouquet was jailed for 5 yrs and 3 months at Hove Crown Court. 

District crown prosecutor Sally Lakin claimed the situation was ‘highly unusual’ with cats currently being attacked at a level she had under no circumstances observed right before. 

She explained: ‘When we offer with situations that worry accidents or dying to animals it really is generally the precise owner staying responsible for inflicting struggling on their possess animal, but of system this was a extremely different circumstance. 

‘Steve Bouquet preyed on a large selection of cats from his regional region and inflicted horrendous damage and struggling on them and a fantastic deal of trauma to their homeowners, who in the long run uncovered their cats injured.’ 

Ms Lakin reported Bouquet ‘certainly would not have been caught so quickly’ had it not been for the CCTV which appeared to capture a person of his attacks on digicam. 

Even so, with so many incidents it took law enforcement and the CPS ‘well more than a year’ to investigate and authorise costs. 

After arresting Bouquet, police were able to use mobile telephone facts to connection his movements to lots of of the assaults. 

But even now, approximately 3 years just after the 1st attack in Oct 2018, the motives powering his offending keep on being a mystery. 

Ms Lakin added: ‘I consider it can be a disgrace for the house owners of the cats that they don’t know why he did it. ‘It’s such an unconventional offence and particularly traumatic. 

‘You could guess all day very long as to why any person would do one thing so heinous.’ 

Commenting at the time of his sentencing, Ms Lakin suggests she hopes the convictions give the homeowners and the wider local community ‘some peace and comfort’ and stressed that offending of this form is ‘extremely rare’.