tillington sheep kills

fri 9th april 2010...we arrive at the village church to meet our contact.a nice chap,ex-military and retired but very community involved.after a cup of tea and cake he introduces us to a lady up the road who tells us about a sighting in the summer 6odd years ago. she and her husband saw a big black cat walking down the middle of the road at dawn.she describes it as a zoo-like animal about 2 1/2 ft tall by 4 ft long with a long tail.we then go next door to meet a lady farmer who tells us the following:2 weeks before christmas her husband comes indoors and says that one of their ewes had been killed with it,s belly eaten out,the ribs had been chewed down and the head was missing.it was in the field that backs on to the garden.a day or two later another ewe was killed and partially eaten in the same way.the next week after that another.in all, in the space of what ,i think was 11 weeks ,5 sheep including a pedigree ,prized southdown ram were killed in near identical circumstances,the last at the beginning of march.at the beginning of feb. they set up a large fox cage trap and baited it with half a lamb.after some time,one night they were woken by a terrific noise and went outside,torches ablazing,to find the trap lying upside down and bashed about.the bait had been taken.these traps are extremely heavy and,when set for foxes,are not lashed or weighed down,something very powerful had been in it.this person was obviously very distraught at losing her sheep in such a way through no fault of her own.these attacks coincided with the coldest bouts of winter weather seen for decades and seeing some huge pawprints in the snow realised the apparent size of the animal......