A nine-year-old girl was left horrified after finding her kitten decapitated behind her home on Easter Sunday.

Her mum Rebecca says nine-month-old Lily’s head appeared to have been removed by a human using a “very sharp knife”.

The parent, who lives in College Road, Hextable, told KentOnline: “We’d only been letting her out for about four weeks, and only when the road was quiet.

“We didn’t see her for about an hour and a half so my nine-year-old daughter went to find her.

“She found her laying down on the land next to our property and thought she was sleeping at first.

“But she thought it was suspicious that she wasn’t moving. When she got closer to her she realised she didn't have a head.

“She ran in screaming and then we went out and looked ourselves. As soon as we saw her we thought ‘an animal didn’t do that’.

“I checked her paws and all her claws were intact. It looked like her head had been taken off by a very sharp knife.”

She emailed police after fearing Lily was killed by a human, and they called her back straight away.

“I asked them if they wanted me to preserve the body and they said no so we buried her,” she said.

Rebecca posted about the incident on a local Facebook page and was directed to the South London Animal Investigation Network (SLAIN).

The organisation told her to take the body to a local vets.

Rebecca added: “The vet there agreed that this was done by human hands rather than an animal.

“The vet was absolutely fantastic. They gave my children a paw print of Lily’s paw and they cut some of her hair and put it in a little fairy dust bottle for them.

“We had Lily for about seven months and she slept with my daughter every night.

“My children were and are pretty distressed, they can’t go in the garden on their own because they’re frightened that they’re going to be killed.”

Both Rebecca and SLAIN are appealing for CCTV footage from 8am to 5pm on March 31.

They would like to hear from anyone who saw a man dressed in black with a head torch on, and anyone who captured CCTV of a white car driving up and down the road.

They are also urging anyone who had property damaged in the area during the time period to come forward.

If you have any information, contact SLAIN on 07957830490 or SLAIN2019@yahoo.com.

Police have confirmed they were called to a report that a deceased cat had been found in a location off College Road, Hextable, which had “possibly been mutilated”.

Anyone with information should call 01622 604100, quoting reference 46/52515/24.