A teenage boy who tortured and killed two kittens with knife, scissors and a blowtorch in a “sadistic” double execution has been locked up for a year.
Members of the public came across a gruesome scene on a footpath through Ruislip Golf Course in May, with one of the young cats strung up in a tree and the other laying dead nearby.
Both kittens had been sliced open and burned, their eyes had been gouged out of their heads, and lumps of flesh and furs were found on the ground.
A girl and a boy, both 17, admitted killing the kittens, and were at Highbury Corner magistrates court to be sentenced on Monday.
The court heard the boy fantasised about killing humans, confessed to mutilating cats to “reduce my urges”, and he had researched how to get away with murder as well as Satanic animal sacrifices.
In a note on his phone after the kittens were killed, he wrote: “I really want to murder someone.
“Every day I was researching how to get away with murder. I’ve come close.
“I killed cats to reduce my urges. I have skinned, strangled, and stabbed cats.”
The girl had pictures of mutilated cats on her phone, downloaded from “gore websites”, and she had also accessed images of dead human bodies. She also tried to buy more kittens on Gumtree after the killings.
District Judge Hina Rai sentenced the boy to a 12-month detention and training order, and gave the girl a nine-month detention and training order.
“Without a doubt, these are the most awful offences against animals that I have ever seen,” she said.
The judge said the boy is “bright, articulate, and capable young boy”, but added: “This is a deeply shocking and concerning case. There was extensive planning, from sourcing the kittens to purchasing equipment.
“It was clearly premeditated, and there is evidence you researched similar content online.”
She also noted that the teenager appears to have selected kittens “because they have emotions and you are in a position of power over them”.
The judge said the girl may have been the “instigator” of the attacks, as attention seeking from mental health services.
The teenagers, who cannot be named due to being aged under 18, had to be sentenced separately, to avoid them being distracted in the dock by seeing each other for the first time in a month.
When arrested, the girl said she had an interest in biology and claimed the cats were dead when she dissected them.
The court heard the teenagers were seen holding hands and walking down the street prior to the killings, on May 3, with the boy carrying the kittens in an animal carrier.
They had advertised for the kittens online, and prosecutor Valerie Benjamin said it was a “planned” killing.
A member of the public found the bloodied kittens and then alerted another person not to go down the path as there was “something horrific”, the court heard.
That second member of the public saw the teenagers and chased them in a bid to take photographs of the culprits, before going back to the bloodied scene.
“She saw two dismembered kittens”, said Ms Benjamin. “There was a small black kitten hanging from red rope around its neck, hanging from a branch.
“The lower body was totally ripped open and its eyes were bulging out.”
The second kitten also had a rope around its neck and was laying on the ground, alongside “pieces of flesh and fur which had been cut off and burned off them”.
Ms Benjamin said knives, a pair of scissors, and a blowtorch were found nearby, and they “appeared to have fresh blood stains on them”.
When the boy was interviewed, he said he was “sorry for what he had done”, the court heard. He had a past history of self-harm, as well as extreme depression and anxiety.
While in youth custody awaiting sentencing, the boy had 46 recorded incidents of bad behaviour, including racist stereotyping, trashing his bedroom, and using abusive language.
Police said his video collection on his phone included animals being mutilated and beheaded.
Naushad Amide, representing both teenagers, said of the boy: "There's nothing he's said to me that indicates he wants to murder somebody.
"He has an interest in psychology. I think that plays a part into it."
The teenage girl told police she “felt remorse and would never do it again”.
She had previously put her hand up in a school biology lesson to ask about the behaviour of animals when they are suffocated.
The judge highlighted that the girl had used the toilet of a ‘cat cafe’ at Westfield shopping centre, and when she and the boy breach their bail by meeting each other, she was in possession of a tin of tuna.
Mr Amide said she has been diagnosed with an emerging borderline personality disorder, and asked for her to be given a community sentence so she can access mental health support.
He insisted she had not realised what type of cafe she was entering when she used the toilet, while the tuna was for food as they were planning to run away together.
Police said she had downloaded videos from the ‘gore website’ before the kitten killing, and she had also been messaging cat owners on Gumtree after the incident in an attempt to buy three kittens.
Both teenagers pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to two kittens and possession of knives at Ruislip golf course.
The judge banned them for life from keeping any animals.
