Brighton Cat Killer: harrowing accounts by cat owners of their stabbed cats

The Brighton Cat Killer. Guilty as charged. Steve Bouquet.

On two other pages I have written about Steve Bouquet who is the alleged Brighton Cat Killer currently on trial for the serial "murders" of 9 domestic cats in and around Brighton and for causing serious injury to 7 more. You can read about the story by clicking this link. His basic modus operandi was to walk down streets at night, befriend domestic cats and then stab them violently. He was caught on CCTV which led to his arrest. They also found the weapon he used to allegedly kill the cats and on the blade of the weapon was feline DNA. It was a Leatherman tool.

One of the cats allegedly stabbed by Bouquet. I don't have her name. The news media got it wrong so I have deleted the name. Photo: The Sun.

In this post I would like briefly to look at the story from the perspective of the cats' owners. It's remarkable that the law in the UK still regards these cats as chattels i.e. inanimate possessions and not sentient beings because although the cats were killed and suffered the owners suffered too.

The Times reports that Bouquet 'slashed and stabbed seven cats in one month'. These are the words of the prosecutor at a hearing at Chichester Crown Court.

Carolyn Green, found her short-haired tabby cat Tommy lying on her doorstep at 6:15 pm when a neighbour told her that she thought Tommy had been hit by a car. He had been let out 'a few minutes earlier'. He was severely injured. She picked him up and noticed blood on her T-shirt. She rushed him to the veterinarian who reported that he had been stabbed. Green was shocked to learn that Tommy had suffered a 4 cm cut. He died despite the veterinarian's best efforts.

Penny Vessey told the court that her black-and-white cat Rigby was very friendly and that she liked to lie outside in public places so that people would pet her. On Halloween night in 2018 allegedly Steve Bouquet stabbed him. The area where she lived had been busy with trick or treaters and she found Rigby the next morning making a mewing sound but not acting like herself.

She recovered from her injuries but it appears that she was psychologically damaged because it took a long time for her to start interacting with people again.

Steve Bouquet. Photo: Eddie Mitchell.

Tina Randall, a former veterinary assistant, described, in court, through her statement, that she discovered her 11-year-old cat Gideon in November 2018 after he had been severely injured. She said that he was fading and she picked him up which caused blood to spurt out of him. She knew immediately that it was a stab wound. With great good fortune, Gideon eventually recovered from a three-quarter inch wound. The veterinary surgeon's bill came to more than £1600.

I had read that Steve Bouquet refused to attend his trial but since then I am receiving conflicting views on that. He did go to court at a pre-trial review and there were lots of protesters nearby hissing and booing at him. He was protected by plain clothes police officers I am told. He is accused of killing 9 domestic cats and severely injuring 7. His charge is criminal damage in line with the law. If convicted the max. sentence will be 10 years in jail. The criminal damage is valued at £32k.

About 12 months the police were completely nonplussed and a at complete loss as to the perpetrator. As mentioned, CCTV caught him. The camera was attached to the home of Mr Levy whose cat, Hannah (14 months old), was also stabbed to death allegedly by this man. She was the first to die. Both he and a neighbour whose cat, Hendrix, was also stabbed and died studied the video from the security camera and notified the police. Bouquet had come back because he had seen the security camera and wanted to check it out apparently. That was his undoing.