Man admits throwing kittens off bridge into Thames as he mentioned ‘I need them to die’

A man has confessed to hurling kittens from a London bridge into the Thames, admitting “what I did was horrible”.

Andrew Shephard, 58, entered guilty pleas to three counts of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. The court was told Shephard was positioned on Twickenham bridge, west London, during the afternoon of November 30 with three of the creatures in a box and “tipped them over the edge into the river”.

Prosecutor Jack Wadsworth revealed this was witnessed by members of the public – one of whom managed to rescue a kitten before it plunged in, whilst the two remaining kittens plummeted into the water.

Witnesses described hearing the defendant declaring, “let them die, I want them to die”, the court was informed.

Regarding his offending, Shephard, who represented himself, stated: “I must say that I was completely out of it.

“I was absolutely paralytic. I don’t really remember anything about what happened.

“I do realise what I did was horrible and I have to look myself every morning in the mirror and know what I did which is completely out of my normal behaviour.

“I can’t say any more than that.”

Following the incident, Shephard explained “he was very drunk and had a problem with alcohol and did not intend on killing them but his daughter could no longer look after them”, Mr Wadsworth informed the hearing.

One of the kittens was taken home by a rescuer, whilst two were transported to a vet in “bad condition”, the prosecutor added. The defendant, who has no fixed abode, is set to be sentenced on 17 February at the same court, following the completion of a pre-sentence report.

It comes after a man who helped run a monkey cruelty ring that created sadistic videos of chimps being sexually abused was sentenced to four years in prison.

Giancarlo Morelli in the US played the role of the middleman in a monkey torture ring where customers bought sick “monkey crushing” videos – a term that originates from a kink where women in stilettos stomp on animals. Such cruel content was banned under the Animal Crush Prohibition Act of 2010.

He and his co-conspirator Nicholas T. Dryden from New Jersey were cuffed by cops in 2024 after getting caught using chatrooms dedicated to monkey torture and mutilation videos the year before.

Morelli funnelled 28 payments of $40 to $379 to Dryden. From there, Dryden would send the money to a child in Indonesia who would perform the requested acts. Read the story here.