Parish councillor ‘remotely set off explosives under neighbour’s cat’
A parish councillor has resigned after he was accused of trying to blow up a neighbour’s cat as it roamed his garden.
James Garnor, who served on Whittlebury Parish Council in Northamptonshire, allegedly filmed beloved pet Suki in his birdhouse before setting off the explosion in April 2023.
The 11-year-old cat was left with singed whiskers, with owner Nikki telling the Telegraph it was ‘like Jeffrey Dahmer kind of stuff’.
Garnor initially attended a voluntary interview with police in October 2023 after a complaint from a local resident.
However, officers concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges.
Almost two years on from the date of the video, he has stepped down from his role on the Whittlebury Parish Council.
A statement from the council said: ‘We understand the concerns raised by the community and want to assure everyone that we take all matters of animal welfare seriously.
‘We can confirm that Cllr Garnor resigned from the council on Friday 7th February 2025, with immediate effect.
‘While the council cannot intervene in private matters, we encourage all individuals to act responsibly and with consideration for the wellbeing of all animals.’
The video shows Suki leaping into the birdhouse and appearing to eat something, before a firework appears to go off and she leaps back out in fright.
Nikki, who did not provide her surname, told LBC she noticed her cat had come home one day missing whiskers on her face and said it was as if they had been ‘dissolved’.
She continued: ‘I put a post in my local community page on Facebook, just to warn people in case there was something she’d rolled in that had dissolved them.
‘But somebody contacted me to tell me it wasn’t what I thought it was, that somebody had actually blown my cat up – and that it was my neighbour and local councillor. It made me feel physically sick.’
Suki ‘used to be a lovely cat’, Nikki added, but now ‘very rarely comes near you, and if she does, she’s got her claws out’.
She said: ‘The change in her happened pretty much overnight.’
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