A security guard who knifed cats to death in a string of attacks has been jailed for more than five years.

Owners of some of the cats Steve Bouquet killed were at Hove Crown Court on Friday to see the 54-year-old imprisoned for 16 attacks in Brighton.

After a spree which lasted between October 2018 and June 2019 he was finally captured on CCTV set up by an owner of a dead cat.

Bouquet was convicted last month of 16 offences of criminal damage, in relation to the cats, and possession of a knife.

Nine cats – Hendrix, Tommy, Hannah, Alan, Nancy, Gizmo, Kyo, Ollie and Cosmo – were killed while another seven were injured.

During the trial jurors heard accounts from several cat owners who had found their pets bleeding on their doorsteps.

Sentencing Bouquet, Judge Jeremy Gold QC said his behaviour was “cruel, it was sustained and it struck at the very heart of family life”.

He was jailed for five years and three months.

In his police interview read out during his trial, Bouquet told officers that all he knew about the cat killings was what he had read in the newspapers and online.

He told police he was “no threat to animals” – but a photo of a dead cat was found on his phone, the court heard.