

In April 1977 there was a horrific incident near the small Dartmoor hamlet of Postbridge. Mr Alan Hicks, his wife and two children were walking on a remote part of the moor when they found fifteen dead and mutilated ponies.

The injuries sustained by the victims indicated immense and violent force. There was speculation that the ponies had been dropped or thrown violently into the small valley where they were found. Some of the victims appeared to decompose very rapidly and the whole incident was shrouded in mystery, a result of which was the numerous theories put forward to explain the deaths.

The incident would have remained a local mystery, but in July 1977 John Wyse of the Torbay

UFO group visited the area with Geiger counters and metal detectors in the hope of finding trace elements of UFO involvement. The story was picked up by the national press and even newspapers across the world carried lurid headlines about the 15 ponies and the horror from outer space.

As quickly as the story broke it disappeared from the tabloids and nothing further was heard about the mystery. In 2000 I heard the incident mentioned on a radio phone in on the subject

of government secrecy. I decided there and then to investigate the matter and should say that at that time I did not think there was an extraterrestrial explanation for the pony deaths.

Seven years later, I am now convinced that this incident was an animal mutilation attack, similar,

if not identical, to thousands of cases across the USA.

During my research into the pony deaths I began to look for similar strange animal deaths on Dartmoor and in March 2005 I stumbled onto what is probably the largest and most complex animal mutilation case that has been reported in the UK. The attacks began in January 2005.

THE DARTMOOR SHEEP KILLINGS

On Sunday the 2nd January 2005 seven dead sheep were found on a hill side next to Pew Tor, Dartmoor. The bodies were discovered at approximately 09:00 hours by a member of the public out walking their dog. The bodies were allegedly laid out in a seven pointed occult star. It was apparent that in addition to the seven victims, an eighth sheep had been attacked and was in a nearby drainage ditch. The walkers, who had found the ewe, helped to raise the animal out of the ditch whereupon it bolted across a cattle grid into a local farmyard.

The animal remained in a traumatised state and was not discovered for twenty four hours when

it was found next to a herb garden. Despite the obvious temptation the animal had eaten nothing from the garden.

A local vet attended the scene and carried out a post mortem to discover the cause of death.



He concluded that the victims had all died of broken necks. He stated that the manner of these deaths was quite extraordinary.

Further investigation revealed that the victims had been held in two holding areas, roughly six metres apart, prior to being killed, the evidence for this was the ‘poaching’ of the ground in

these two areas ( ‘poaching’ means the muddy areas where the sheep were standing – after some minutes of trampling moisture comes to the surface, forming muddy areas). Curiously,

there were no tracks or post marks indicating temporary fencing of these areas.

A body map of the crime scene indicated that the bodies were left in a roughly elliptical

shape approximately 36 metres across, and that the claim that it formed an occult star was somewhat inaccurate.

The killings were carried out in full view of a nearby farm and a local policeman stated his surprise that neither the dogs at the farm nor the nearby rookery, were alerted by the perpetrators.





It was disappointing that the insides of the mouths were not checked because it is possible that some, if not all, the tongues could have been excised as was the case with later victims.

There were no further attacks until Friday 14th October 2005 when four sheep were found

dead in a field near to a local car park and within half a mile of the first incident.

The 4 victims found in the field had been left in a roughly square arrangement and were approximately 30 metres equidistant from each other. All the victims had had their tongues excised to the back of the mouth and some of the eyes had been removed.

The following night four more sheep were killed, this time on Barn Hill which is less than five hundred yards from the first attack. The four victims were not laid out in any particular way and there was some distance between the victims, again the tongues had been excised to the back of the mouth and some of the eyes had been removed.



There appeared to be some disturbance to a small rocky outcrop on Barn Hill which resulted in speculation that it might have been used for a make-shift altar. However, there were no traces

of blood that would have indicated a sacrifice.

There was another long break before the next attack which took place on Monday 26th June 2006. Again, the victims were found near Barn Hill and the three victims had suffered identical injuries – tongues excised to the back of the mouth, one eye completely removed and the

necks were broken. One victim had had a section of tissue approximately 6 centimetres in length and about 5 millimetres deep, removed from the lower lip. The tissue appeared to have been removed by an instrument that had left a precise serrated edge. This mutilation is called the ‘cookie cutter’ in the USA, where numerous examples of this injury have been found amongst cattle.

There was little blood at the crime scene and it appears that one of the bodies had been removed during Tuesday night.

The attacks became more regular and two sheep were killed on the 7th July 2006 in two

separate attacks. On the 21st August and the 29th August there were two more victims and on the 30th August three sheep were killed in the same mysterious manner.

In the attack on the 29th August the victim had had an eye removed and showed evidence of rectal coring, although the tongue had not been removed. There was a particularly disturbing occurrence with the body of this ewe. The dead animal had been left in the back of a local farmer’s Land Rover and when the farmer checked the body there were large piles of dead blow flies next to the body. Whoever or whatever had killed the animal had left something on fleece that was lethal to the flies.

During the month of September 2006 there was an orgy of killing, with no fewer than seven attacks and twenty three victims. A disturbing factor in these attacks was the very rapid rates of decomposition. On one occasion, when the local farmers were carrying out an all night patrol of the area, a lamb was killed and mutilated within minutes of the farmers searching the crime

scene. All the September victims died within the same half mile square of moorland.

There was a nine month respite from the attacks until 17th July 2007, when seven more victims were mutilated. As in virtually all the previous attacks, tongues were excised and one eye was removed from each victim. Strips of tissue were removed from the upper and lower lip area.

The last reported attack came on the 4th November 2007, when the victim was taken from a field and transported half a mile to Barn Hill where it was killed and mutilated.

I believe that this long series of killings began on 2nd January 2005 and will continue until the perpetrators decide to stop. The attacks have been carried out with impunity and despite the large number of incidents there appears to be no witnesses. Given the small area where the majority of victims have been found and its close proximity to Pork Hill car park, I find this incredible. The area around Barn Hill is plainly an important factor in these attacks.

The majority of these attacks are linked and the injuries sustained by the animals are summarised as follows.

1. Tongue excised by a smooth cut to the back of the throat (no blood evident)

2. One eye completely removed (not pecked out by natural predators)

3. Rectal coring – veterinary examination has proved that in one victim at least the anal

sphincter was removed

4. ‘Scratches’ on the underside of the forelegs (a vet suggested that these ‘scratches’ may have been caused by a sharp instrument

5. A two centimetre hole made in the under foreleg to access the body cavity

6. Teats removed or partly removed by some sharp instrument

7. Bruising around the head

8. Exceptionally rapid decomposition of bodies

9. Broken necks

10. Unidentified damage to kidneys (similar to some killings in the USA)

11. Small strips of tissue removed from jaw. The instrument used to do this leaves a serrated

edge and appears to cauterize the tissue at the same time. This injury, which has been

found in numerous animal mutilation attacks in the USA is referred to as ‘the cookie cutter’

My colleague David Gillham and I have carried out numerous all night surveillance operations in the area around Barn Hill. During these watches we have not seen any human activity whatsoever. However, on the night of 13th /14th May 2006 we witnessed a great deal of anomalous activity involving flashing lights and other unidentifiable light forms in the area around Barn Hill, Middle Staple Tor and Cox Tor. We were successful in capturing some of this activity on camcorders.



We have seen similar activity during 2007 and I have dozens of cases of UFOs being seen in this part of Dartmoor.





©Mike Freebury - 7th March 2008