Animal rescuers ‘gutted’ after 30 ferrets stolen
Charity owners sickened to find sanctuary cages empty
Owners of a Harrietsham animal sanctuary have been left devastated after thieves stole 30 ferrets in their care.
The animals were taken from Polhill Lane, between 6pm last Wednesday and midday the following day.
Christine Wilson, who runs Harrietsham Ferret Rescue with her husband Roy, said she felt “sick” and “gutted” when she realised what had happened. She said: “I went round to feed them and clean them out on Thursday, and I saw a cage open. “I thought ‘oh god, I haven’t left the cage open, have I?’, but loads of them were open.
“We are quite near to the motorway here, so people quite often stop nearby to go to the loo or whatever and we can hear their dogs barking.
“The one time we have not got up to look this has happened.” Mrs Wilson, 67, also noticed a pair of trousers were taken. She said: “I imagine they have run out of places to put the ferrets
and so they put them inside the trousers.”
Some of the stolen ferrets had lived with her and her husband for a long time. The couple have run the animal centre - where they also care for dogs, a bird of prey, tortoises and a further 25 ferrets - for more than 20 years. Last month four ferrets were
stolen in Ashford. As pets they can sell for up to £100, but can also be used to hunt for rabbits. Investigating officer, PC Jodie Rayfield said: “We believe those responsible would have used several cages and a vehicle to transport the ferrets from the scene. We are appealing for witnesses who saw anybody acting
suspiciously in the area at the time to contact us.
“Drivers with dashcam or residents with CCTV are also asked to check video footage for anything that may assist the investigation.”
Anyone with information should call 01622 604100, quoting 46/35671/21.
A former school IT technician installed software onto work computers to spy on staff and was found with hundreds of indecent images of children. Police were were tipped off about Andrew Cakebread, from Maidstone and launched an investigation.
They had been passed information the 36-year-old had indecent images of children on his computers but the investigation led officers to discover footage that appeared to be from software installed on staff computers that allowed him to spy. In February 2019 officers from
Kent Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation team executed a warrant at his home address in Lower Stone Street, Maidstone. He was arrested and officers took a desktop computer and external hard drive where they found 712 indecent images and 206 videos of children.
None of these images or videos involved anyone at his place of work.
When officers searched the hard drive they also found videos of adults and children being filmed while working at computers and laptops.
Cakebread’s employers were unaware the software had been installed and had not authorised it to be.
The hard drive was found to contain a total of 6,724 videos of staff members and their family members, plus a further 79 webcam videos.
This led to his further arrest in March last year.
A further review revealed covert footage taken in the staff toilets which led to additional interviews.
Cakebread was also charged with three counts of making indecent images of children, observing a person doing a private act and causing a computer to perform a function to secure or enable unauthorised access to a programme or data. He pleaded guilty to the offences in October and he has now been jailed for 30 months after appearing at Maidstone Crown Court.