An 11-year-old boy was moments away from stroking the corpse of a mutilated cat after its tail was cut off and stuck to a front door.

Natalie Hughes grabbed her son’s hood on his coat as he went to say hello to the cat which had been dumped in a garden in Marion Crescent, Maidstone.

Mrs Hughes and Troy were walking to Park Way Primary School on Friday when she noticed the pet had been killed.

She later realised the cat’s tail had been severed and hung on the front door of a neighbour’s house.

Mrs Hughes said: “I was taking my little boy to school and there is one house where there is a woman with a lot of cats.

“In the next garden there was a mutilated cat with the tail cut off and hung it on the front door.

“When I got to work I felt terrible.”

Police were called to the scene with doubts being cast over the cat being killed in the immediate area due to the lack of blood in the vicinity.

Mrs Hughes said: “Lots of people are saying it is a copycat killer. It is barbaric.

“My son was about to run over and stroke it but I could tell something wasn’t right so I grabbed him by the hood. I didn’t want him to be upset at school so I said somebody had run it over.

“It is someone’s pet for God’s sake. At what point does this person start murdering people.

“The tail was put on the front door and the body was left to the side of the car.

“Apparently there was no blood at the scene so the pussy cat must have been killed somewhere else.”