Security guard found guilty of killing nine cats and injuring others
A security guard has been found guilty of killing multiple cats and injuring others in Brighton.
Steve Bouquet was on trial accused of killing nine cats and injuring seven more in a string of attacks in the city.
Bouquet, 54, denied 16 offences of criminal damage and possession of a knife, but was found guilty by a jury at Chichester Crown Court.
The campaign of attacks went on for several months between October 2018 and June 2019.
Earlier in the trial the court heard how the string of knife attacks on cats in the East Sussex city left detectives stumped for months.
But jurors heard that a breakthrough in the mystery came when a CCTV system set up by an owner of a slain cat appeared to capture a fresh attack on camera.
Footage was obtained that appeared to show Bouquet stroking a cat and taking something from his rucksack before making a "sudden jerk" with his arm, prosecutor Rowan Jenkins said.
"This is the moment we say that the defendant stabs Hendrix with some force," he added.
The nine cats Bouquet was found guilty of killing are: Kyo, Hendrix, Tommy, Hannah, Alan, Nancy, Gizmo, Ollie and Cosmo.
Det Insp Chris Thompson says it has had a dramatic impact on pet owners
During the trial jurors heard accounts from several cat owners who had found their pets bleeding on their doorsteps.
Tina Randall described the moment she discovered her 11-year-old cat Gideon had been injured in November 2018.
"He was fading and as I picked him up, blood splurted out," she said.
"I immediately thought it was a stab wound."
Gideon eventually recovered from the three-quarter inch wound, Ms Randall told the court, and vet bills for his surgery came to more than £1,600.
In his police interview read out in court, Bouquet told officers that all he knew about the cat killings was what he had read in the newspapers and online.
He told police he was "no threat to animals" - but a photo of a dead cat was found on his phone.
Bouquet will be sentenced at a later date.