We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE POLICE HAVE arrested a man in connection with a string of cat killings in the area, and investigations are underway to see if the cases are linked to the “Croydon cat killer”.
The 31-year-old man is suspected of being involved in the deaths of five cats, as well as a number of arson attacks, who were found mutilated in Northampton between August and November.
This man, however, has since been released pending further inquiries.
The police force there is working with the Met Police in London to see if there’s a link with the notorious “Croydon cat killer”, but South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (Snarl) says it does not believe the person arrested is behind the killings.
Snarl believes that the “Croydon cat killer”, as they have become known, may have not confined their activities to that section of south London and slaughtered up to 400 cats across the country.
It said that this individual “remains active and we continue to attend incidents”, with the most recent taking place on Friday.
In a Facebook post, it urged no one to engage in any vigilante action or to name any potential suspect until they have been charged by police.
In an interview with AFP before Christmas, Snarl’s Tony Jenkins outlined how he and co-founder Boudicca Rising have, since 2015, identified patterns of behaviour in the killings, discovering that some cat bodies are deliberately posed near schools and in parks, or even under their owners’ windows.
Post-mortems following the first spate of attacks found that the cats died from blunt force trauma and the mutilations occurred after death.
“Police believe an individual or a group of individuals… are responsible for both the deaths and mutilations,” Scotland Yard told AFP.
Over the Christmas period, there were reports of cats being attacked in south and north London, Buckinghamshire and Kent.
Charities such as Snarl are working with law enforcement agencies in the UK to try to track down the person or persons responsible.
Two groups, Peta UK and Outpaced, are also offering £5,000 each for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the cat killer.
With reporting from AFP
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
#WAP
There’s an app called our pact – ourpact.com
It enables you to schedule times for your child’s device to have the apps active. You can also turn them on and off at will – removes the friction of “give me the phone”.
With a phone, the phone part keeps working for texts & phone calls – this is good for safety, however almost everything else including internet access shuts down. for a tablet, only core apps keep working.
It’s free as far as I know.
I’m sorry but you don’t give a 12 year old the world at the click of a button
Pretty much impossible to stop that Adrian.
Education is key.
Technology today is similar to letting your kids ramble off for an entire day anywhere they like when they are 6,7,8,9
They could be anywhere, be with anyone, taken, who know.
Only a matter of time before they access technology, whether it’s in your home, schools mates phone, tablet, whatever. Forbidden fruit is only more attractive, more you try to prevent it the more they will hide it from you and the consequences all the worse.
Really really … really important for parents / guardians to educate and regularly speak to children, you need your child to trust you, share with you, be safe … have fun but with guidance and support.
I remember being 12 using the family computer and on an Irish chatroom Widemouth talking with complete strangers about everything as I did every day when my Mother entered the room, she told me to stay away from those chat rooms as she had just heard about the Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells soham story that was breaking at the time with the danger of speaking with strangers on the internet becoming apparent to her, she would have seen the chat room on screen but didn’t register what it was. What she also didn’t know was that I had already met up with people from that chat room and gone bowling.
In hindsight I realise how dangerous that was but also it highlights how far behind media and concern groups are with what kids are actually doing, there was a big uproar about chatrooms at the time but only because two girls had gone missing after using one.
It’s important for parents to educate themselves but also to be aware that they will never be able to stop a determined teenager from doing as they wish online. It’s better to encourage them to use good and safe practices like not providing identifiable details to strangers or in a place where strangers may access, not just their name but their e-mail address, location and their school as well. I think it’s important that the teenager feels able to talk to you about any issues which happen online as well rather than feel reluctant for fear of being blocked or forbidden from doing something they enjoy.
This is the wrong approach.
You need to raise smart & tech-savvy kids – not sheltered & isolated ones. They’ll be exposed to stuff either way. Trying to keep them away from everything online is impossible, so much better they know how to deal with it WHEN it arises.
@Jason Maguire: What an idiotic idea. I couldn’t want my daughter exposed to hardcore pornography or paedophiles even if she were completely aware of what they are and how to deal with them. Neither do I want her to see people decapitated live on a stream.
I’m lucky that as a software dev I am able to completely shut down objectionable content if I need to, however if I wasn’t then I would take the approach of a hard wired connection on the main computer in a common living area. No doubt about that.
@Dennis Laffey: so you control the internet access on her friend’s devices and in their homes too? Solid idea there.
Of course you’d block porn at home, you dope – what I’m saying is make sure they’re savvy enough to spot if some weirdo is chatting to them in a Facebook chat, or on Snapchat, or Whatsapp, etc. Don’t be naive – don’t be gullible. You cannot protect them from everything, despite you thinking you can. You don’t control the entire internet, Dennis. You control what they can see in YOUR home only.
@Jason Maguire: No need for the personal attacks Jason.
Look at what you wrote; “This is the wrong approach”.
In the context of this article (which talks about setting up basic blocking and educating children and parents about the dangers of unsupervised access to the internet) it is logical that I would assume that you are advocating for not educating children and not blocking access. Follow on with the rest of your comment and it very easy to presume that you are in favour of a laissez-faire approach to children’s access to the internet. Which is obviously crazy.
I don’t disagree with your more defined comment, but next time try to be more accurate about your opinions from the start. I am not able to guess at what you meant to type.
“You cannot protect them from everything, despite you thinking you can. You don’t control the entire internet, Dennis. You control what they can see in YOUR home only.”
I never said I could/did control the whole internet. No need to dip into logical fallacies Jason.
Well Kenny would know… he’s still Taoiseach so it’s obviously not all about the votes either
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say