Family's cat killed, decapitated, set on fire and hung on scaffolding by neighbour

Horrified neighbours saw the beloved feline named ‘Jack’ hanging dead from scaffolding near to his home in Rotherham after he was killed by Wayne Williamson. 

Williamson, upon being confronted by one of the neighbours, subsequently laid Jack in a nearby flower bed, before dousing him with lighter fluid and setting him alight, prosecutor Amy Earnshaw told Sheffield Crown Court. 

Ms Earnshaw said Williamson, aged 44, was reported as having said: “Anyone fancy some cat?’ and ‘what about an eyeball?” 

He was also heard muttering about having ‘cremated’ Jack, just like his brother had been, a hearing held on July 29, 2024 heard. 

The police were called and searched Williamson’s property, and found Jack’s body in a nearby bin, but he was, by this time, missing his head. 

Ms Earnshaw said Jack’s head, contained within a plastic sandwich bag, was subsequently located on a table inside Williamson’s property. 

Officers also recovered a machete from Williamson’s home, the court heard. 

In a statement read to the court, Jack’s distressed owner said it was hard to put into words the ‘devastating effect’ of knowing Jack - who had been in their family for years - had been killed and ‘tortured in such a way’.  

“It was a needless use of violence,” the owner added. 

Ms Earnshaw described how in the days preceding the incident on August 12, 2023, Jack’s owner noticed that someone had been leaving food out for him; and had left out a note for the person responsible, asking them to stop. 

The owner subsequently had a conversation with Williamson, who admitted to being the one leaving out the food, and mentioned something about his brother passing away, the court heard. 

During his police interview, Williamson answered ‘no comment’ to all questions posed. 

He was subsequently charged with, and pleaded guilty to, offences of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal by acts of strangulation, arson and decapitation, along with a separate offence of arson, at an earlier hearing. 

Ms Earnshaw told the court that Williamson, of Beaconsfield Road, Broom, Rotherham, has a criminal record of 14 offences from two previous convictions, with eight offences against property recorded against him.   

Defending, Umar Shahzad, said Williamson had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and the condition ‘would have been present’ when the offences were carried out. 

“Shortly before the offences took place, the defendant’s brother had sadly passed away, which had a significant impact upon his mental health,” Mr Shahzad said, adding that Williamson had stopped taking the medication for his condition before this incident. 

Judge Graham Reeds KC noted that Williamson had also begun to take illicit drugs, and had also been ‘drinking to excess’. 

He told Mr Shahzad that by the time of the offences, Williamson’s paranoid schizophrenia was very ‘well- established,’ that it had previously resulted in him being made the subject of a hospital order but was sufficiently managed through medication. 

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Judge Reeds suggested, therefore, that Williamson’s experience with the condition meant he ‘would have known’ that by choosing not to take his medication or by drinking and taking illicit drugs - and Williamson had done both - he was ‘likely’ to be ‘driven to this psychotic or near psychotic state’. 

A reduction in Williamson’s criminal culpability should consequently be reduced to ‘almost zero,’ ruled Judge Reeds. 

Mr Shahzad says Williamson ‘fully acknowledges his actions were unacceptable’ and ‘completely regrets his behaviour’. 

Williamson, continued Mr Shahzad, has been doing well in custody after on remand since August 2023, is now on the right medication and is receiving the help and support he needs. 

Mr Shahzad suggested Judge Reeds could impose a suspended sentence, or one which would consist of the time he has already served behind bars waiting to be brought before the court. 

Judge Reeds jailed Williamson for 22 months and told him: “You killed and mutilated a neighbour’s family pet. It was a horrible crime which has devastated them.”

“This act will be met with revulsion by right-thinking members of society.”

“You started acting in this way because you started taking illicit drugs, and stopped taking medication. This doesn’t diminish their [the family’s] distress or revulsion.” 

“After you killed the cat you decapitated it and set on fire for your own amusement in the state you were in.”

Judge Reeds told Williamson that he may soon be released from prison, due to the time he has spent on remand; but was keen to emphasise that this was not by design and was because he had simply handed him the ‘least sentence which can be passed commensurate with your offending’.