Scotland Yard declares humans in the clear and foxes likely to be behind mutilations in south London

For a nation of animal lovers, it was one of the most gripping whodunnits of the modern era. Reports in November 2015 of cats found mutilated around the Croydon area of south London, with their heads and tails removed, sparked media headlines that a “Croydon cat killer” was on the loose and fears the fiend might strike again.

But almost three years on, after postmortems on deceased cats and two rabbits, forensic examinations, DNA tests and the studying of CCTV, Scotland Yard announced that humans were in the clear – and that the most likely culprits were foxes or other scavenging animals.

The initial publicity had encouraged more people to report cases, and the number of mutilated cats soon grew to more than 400 across London and the home counties. Animal welfare experts and a small team of police officers were looking for patterns as the body count mounted.

The police investigation was known as Operation Takahe and animal lovers at one point offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the capture of a human killer. The continuing mystery triggered speculation that the mutilations may be part of a satanic ritual, and even that the killer may turn to attacking humans.

The actor and star of Men Behaving Badly Martin Clunes wrote to police in 2016 urging an investigation to catch the killer, warning: “The safety of the entire community depends on it.”

In 2016 experts examined 25 dead cats, and six of the deaths were classed as suspicious. Police said: “The cause of death was found to be blunt-force trauma such as collisions with vehicles. The mutilations were found to have occurred after death, and some of these were thought to have been caused by a sharp implement.”

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That conclusion of a sharp instrument possibly being involved raised the prospect that a person or persons might be to blame. Further investigations were carried out by police, investigators from the RSPCA and the South Norwood Animal Rescue League (Snarl). But no conclusive evidence was found of human involvement.

On Thursday police revealed that the breakthrough came in April 2017, through CCTV footage. “A woman in north London described how in April 2017, after finding the mutilated body of a cat in her garden, she checked CCTV and saw a fox carrying the cat’s head into her garden,” the Met said.

“In June 2017 a cat’s head was found in a school playground in Catford. CCTV showed a fox carrying the head into the playground. In July 2017 a witness found the body of a cat with no head or tail next to her property. Suspecting that the cat had been placed there, she checked CCTV and saw a fox drop the cat in the position in which it was found.”

Finally, the investigation had a working theory. Police said the theory was solidified by expert opinion, including a New Scientist article about how wildlife was known to scavenge on roadkill, “often removing the heads and tails of dead animals”.

The Met said: “No evidence of human involvement was found in any of the reported cases. There were no witnesses, no identifiable patterns and no forensic leads that pointed to human involvement. Witness statements were taken, but no suspect was identified. In three instances where CCTV was obtained, footage showed foxes carrying bodies or body parts of cats.”

Every engrossing crime story needs a boffin, and in this tale it was Henny Martineau, the head of veterinary forensic pathology at the Royal Veterinary College. In June 2018 she examined three cats and two rabbits and matched samples found on the corpses to fox DNA.

One evidential obstacle to overcome before the blame could be pinned on foxes was the postmortems from 2016 that had suggested six mutilations were suspicious. The Met said the veterinary pathologist who carried out those examinations had another look last month.

“He found puncture wounds not found previously on some of the animals and concluded that some had been potentially scavenged. Additional forensic tests were carried out and these did not show any clear difference between marks on the bodies of cats that had been scavenged and the cats whose mutilations had been deemed suspicious.”

Research by investigators found a precedent from more than 20 years ago, when a spate of mutilations were reported and eventually blamed on scavenging wildlife.

Amanda Pearson, of the Met, said people should in future report concerns to the RSPCA rather than the police, unless there was evidence of human wrongdoing.

“On average, the Met receives over 1,000 calls each month relating to animals and animal welfare. I would urge people to report concerns relating to animal welfare in the first instance to the RSPCA,” she said.

“The decision was made to allocate a large number of similar reports of mutilated cats to the officers who were investigating the initial spate of such allegations. In particular, they were following up the six suspicious cases identified by the postmortem examinations.

“It is this collating of reports that enabled officers to work with experts and reach the conclusion that no further police investigations are required into any of the allegations relating to mutilated cats.”

The Met said it had informed the RSPCA and Snarl at a meeting on Thursday of its conclusions. “All of the cases of cat mutilation will be recorded as ‘no crime’.”