‘Satanic cult’ stalking British countryside may be behind latest sheep slayings

A flock of sheep have been mutilated and killed in a national park, sparking fears of a Satanic-style cult operating in the area.

Six ewes and lambs were found brutally stabbed in the latest sheep killing spree, with one being discovered with its throat slit.

Photographs show one sheep with its intestines hanging out after suffering a four-inch gash to its side, while another suffered similar injuries.

The attacks in the New Forest National Park, Hampshire, are the latest in a string of livestock killings which date back over five years in the celebrated area.

The string of sinister attacks have been linked to Satanism – as previously sheep have had pentagrams daubed on their bodies after being massacred.

The latest attacks happened in Cadnam – the same village where a sheep was stabbed to death in 2020 and left lying next to a cross and broken pitchfork.

Cadnam farmers Andrew and Sarah Parry-Norton today revealed on Thursday morning that six of their animals had been targeted.

Mr Parry-Norton, 55, said: ‘I had a call at 7.10am from a neighbour who had found a lamb which had bled to death by her front gate.

‘As I was about to go to that, I had a call from agister Jonathan Gerrelli who thought one of my sheep had been hit by a car close to the Green Dragon pub.

‘I went there to find it had a four-inch gash to its side and it had most of its intestines hanging out, so it had to be put down at the roadside.’

Mr Parry-Norton said another lamb had its throat slit and one had an unsurvivable gash to its side.

Another ewe and its lamb were stabbed to their shoulders and are currently still alive but are ‘touch and go’.

Mr Parry-Norton is chairman of the Commoners Defence Association, the group that supports the rights of Commoners – people who can let their livestock graze the New Forest freely.

He added: ‘The last thing we want is to see them suffer.

‘It’s completely senseless, how do you get any kind of gratification for it?

‘I think that somebody has got this grudge against sheep, as bizarre as it sounds.

‘It’s almost like they don’t understand that this is not a computer game and there are actual consequences, you can’t just go around killing sheep.

‘My wife was in tears yesterday.

‘It is disturbing that these attacks keep happening here.

‘If we met this person in one of the lanes late at night and he’s armed, what happens then? If we come head to head, where does it end?’

Mrs Parry-Norton added: ‘It was horrific to see the poor sheep trying to make its way back home – they knew they needed help.

‘To see an animal you’ve looked after and nurtured mutilated like that is so upsetting.

‘We have a common right to have sheep out, and we should be able to do it and know they are safe.

‘You accept the occasional one gets run over – it’s just unfortunate – but to lose so many in one day is just too horrific.’

This latest discovery follows a number of sinister findings in the New Forest.

A deer was discovered strung up in a tree in the nearby town of Totton, where locals said the animals are not usually seen nearby, leading them to suspect the perpetrator transported the carcass to put it on display.

Last year Commoner Patrick Langdown said he feared the occult had returned after his lamb had its throat slit.

At the 12th century St Peter’s Church in New Forest village Bramshaw, congregation members found a cat hanging from a flagpole in December 2022, just weeks after a dead fox was found near its doorstep.

In January 2023, police were alerted to possible Satanists after pig hearts were found on top of a Bronze Age mound surrounded by 30 candles on Stagbury Hill in the new Forest.

This raised fears of an animal sacrifice, with pigs often the focus of religious rituals stretching back to ancient Greek times, usually to appease a supernatural being, though it is not known if it was merely just a prank.

In 2020, a sheep was found stabbed in Cadnam and dumped next to a cross and pitchfork.

In 2019, Bramshaw was further plagued by suspected Satanists after two dead sheep were found with pentagrams spray-painted on their bodies, a cow was stabbed in the neck and the number 666 was daubed on the doors of the church.

Satanism is a religious, or counter-cultural practice, based on the figure of Satan, otherwise known as the Devil. In Christianity and Judaism, the figure is seen as the embodiment of absolute evil.

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