Scrutable

The charge of animal cruelty... would... attract a lesser sentence than criminal damage.

Brightonian wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:20 pm

The charge of animal cruelty... would... attract a lesser sentence than criminal damage.

Seems wrong to me.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:53 pm

Brightonian wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:20 pm

The charge of animal cruelty... would... attract a lesser sentence than criminal damage.

Seems wrong to me.

Sentencing guidelines for animal cruelty here: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/of ... ised-2017/ max 26 weeks custody.

Guidelines for criminal damage here: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/of ... al-damage/ max 3 months custody.

So presumably something particular to this case that means an animal cruelty charge would likely result in a lesser sentence than criminal damage. I haven't bothered to compare the guidelines against whatever we know about this case but if anyone else wants to then be my guest.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 23, 2019 11:20 pm

Apologies, I missed out criminal damage where the value exceeds £5k https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/of ... nal-damage

Neither include fire but tbh that's arguably a different kettle of fish.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 23, 2019 11:20 pm

Apologies, I missed out criminal damage where the value exceeds £5k https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/of ... nal-damage

Neither include fire but tbh that's arguably a different kettle of fish.

touchingcloth wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 25, 2019 11:11 pm

How has Croydon found its way into the title?

touchingcloth wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 25, 2019 11:11 pm

How has Croydon found its way into the title?

tenchboy wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 7:17 am

touchingcloth wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 25, 2019 11:11 pm

How has Croydon found its way into the title?

The original stories were centred on Norwood in London but there is no possible alliterative newspaper headline to be had from that; so, as Norwood is close by to Croydon, and there were cats involved and they were being killed & scavenged by cars & foxes (and possibly badgers*) but it was thought some other mythical entity was involved the papers - in a master piece of invention - not once hesitating to let truth stand in the way of a good, easily memorable headline - attributed the whole sequence of shock reports and anecdotes to the fabled 'Croydon Cat Killer' (nearby Dulwich, MItcham & Bromley all being discounted for the same reason as was Norwood itself). As there was now an established popular cause for road kills being scavenged by foxes that didn't need cars and foxes (or badgers) as part of its explanation (one thing versus two things, you see, much less complicated to explain) every cat (or rabbit, guinea pig) that had been killed anywhere in the country by a car (or other) and later scavenged by a fox (or other) became a victim of the mythical C.C.C. whether it was in Penge or Durham Dungeness. Mass communication had created an hysteria.

In later days when actual people started going out and killing cats for real, the original mythical entity was brought back into play because the legend had by now grown to big to contain.

*Badgers don't just eat worms and berries you know; ther's nothing they like more than to gobble up a nest of baby hedge-hogs.
FAQs: Baby hedge-hogs are soft and furry rather than spiny.
Yes they do eat adult hedge-hogs too: they peel back the spines, turn them inside out and munch, munch, munch.
HTH
TB

greyspoke wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:42 am

South Norwood is in the London Borough of Croydon, though Upper Norwood includes a join between multiple inner and outer boroughs.

Also, top marks for mentioning Penge!

noggins wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 31, 2021 10:28 pm

greyspoke wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:42 am

South Norwood is in the London Borough of Croydon, though Upper Norwood includes a join between multiple inner and outer boroughs.

Also, top marks for mentioning Penge!

There is a growing* separatist movement though to create a new borough - Great Norwood** out of south Lambeth, south Southwark, SW Lewisham , NW Bromley and N Croydon.

*i just started it, anyone in

** open to name suggestions

London cat 'serial killer' was just foxes, DNA analysis confirms

Between 2014 and 2018, more than 300 mutilated cat carcasses were found on London streets, leading to sensational media reports that a feline-targeting serial killer was on the loose. The fact that the cats often had their heads or tails cut off, as well as the cleanliness of their wounds, led many to suspect human involvement. Others dismissed the suggestion, pointing the finger at foxes instead.
To find out more, Henny Martineau at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK and her colleagues analysed 32 mutilated cat carcasses found by the public between 2016 and 2018. The bodies had been stored by the Hertfordshire and Metropolitan police forces as part of an investigation.
The researchers conducted post-mortem examinations on the cats, as well as CT scans. They also swabbed the cats’ fur to test whether they could find DNA belonging to other animals such as dogs, foxes or badgers.

The police struggled to pinpoint the true killer of the cats because of how different all the carcasses looked, says Martineau. “In our study, there were 13 different combinations of missing body parts, so it was difficult to spot patterns initially.”
Testing for DNA, the researchers concluded that the cats had all been mutilated by foxes after they had died. The post-mortem examination revealed that there was no single cause of death among the cats. They suspect that just 10 of the 32 cats they analysed were killed by foxes.
Read more: Hungry foxes have been raiding our bins for thousands of years
Meanwhile, eight probably died from natural heart or lung failure, while six probably died after being hit by a vehicle. The findings reinforce the conclusions made by the Metropolitan Police in 2018.

Martineau suspects the reason that many of the cats’ tails and heads were chopped off is because foxes have a weak jaw and scavenge alone. “So they are going to target areas that are easy to remove,” she says.
The lack of blood on the edges of the cats’ wounds can also be explained by foxes. “The mutilation occurred after the animal had died, so it would not be bleeding after death,” says Martineau.
“It is hard to say how many foxes were involved, I guess, but it is possible this was only limited to one or a few individuals that figured out cats could be food,” says Kevin Parsons at the University of Glasgow in the UK.
“Croydon is on the edge of London so it may be happening due to new interactions and encroachments,” he says. “But it could also be that these are ‘badly behaved’ foxes for the time being and such behaviours will eventually be selectively removed from the population as we remain in contact.”