'Croydon cat killer' mystery solved by Scotland Yard; humans not involved

Ending three years of painstaking investigations, Scotland Yard Thursday announced that humans were not involved in a series of killings of cats in south London and the most likely culprits were foxes or other scavenging animals.

The force launched an investigation in 2015 into reports of mutilated cats, often with heads and tails removed, in Croydon and the surrounding area.

Twenty-five post-mortem examinations were carried out but found no evidence of "human involvement", Scotland Yard said.

Foxes are believed to be behind some of the mutilations.

Police said injuries inflicted on cats were "likely to be the result of predation or scavenging by wildlife on cats killed in vehicle collisions".

During the probe, detectives received more than 400 similar reports of cats being mutilated across London and surrounding counties, the BBC reported.

However, all of the cases will now be recorded as "no crime".

Commander Amanda Pearson said each individual report had to be investigated, which led to an "increased workload" for officers working on the case.

"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," she said.

The Met's inquiry found there was CCTV footage showing foxes carrying pet body parts in three cases.

Dr Henny Martineau, head of veterinary forensic pathology at the Royal Veterinary College, carried out post-mortems on the six cats whose deaths were initially treated as "suspicious".

She found puncture wounds not previously uncovered on some of the animals and concluded some had been potentially scavenged.

Chief Inspector Stuart Orton from Hertfordshire Police, which led a linked investigation, said the prospect of "a person or persons travelling the country and mutilating animals" had been "eliminated".

"Evidence suggests the animals had been predated by foxes - in a rabbit's case after being removed from a hutch, and in a cat's case after death, likely caused by a road traffic collision," he said.

"I hope this conclusion brings comfort to pet owners who have, up until now, been frightened to let their animals out at night," Orton said.

At one point during the three-year investigation a pound 10,000 reward was offered for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for mutilations in Greater London, Surrey, Kent, Manchester, Birmingham, St Albans and Northamptonshire.