A farmer’s son on a late-night check of his flock disturbed poachers who fled, abandoning a decapitated sheep in a Kent field. The grim discovery at Syndale Park Farm in Faversham has triggered a police investigation and highlighted the brutal reality of rural crime.
Luke Burgess, 26, was riding his quadbike across the land at about 11pm when his headlights revealed what he first thought was a ewe giving birth. As he approached, he found the animal had been slaughtered and decapitated, its severed head left inside a plastic bag beside the carcass. He immediately called his father, Clive Burgess, 56, the farm’s owner.
Mayhem for the Flock
The disturbance caused panic among the more than 300 ewes, with the farm in the midst of the critical lambing season. “The other sheep all started flocking together as they were startled, they all huddled up,” said Clive Burgess. “We’re in lambing season so there’s also half a dozen newborn lambs being born and just left out in the open. It caused mayhem – all the sheep were disturbed.”
Scanning the area, Luke Burgess later found two newborn lambs, the offspring of the killed ewe, lying beneath three large fir trees beside two large pools of blood. It is believed the perpetrators slit the sheep’s throat under the trees before dragging the carcass about 100 yards towards the road, only to flee upon seeing the quadbike approach.
For Clive Burgess, who has worked the land for 40 years, the incident marks a disturbing escalation. “I usually have a couple of lambs going missing every year and vanish into thin air, but something like this is a new one to me,” he said. Livestock theft remains a costly blight, with the NFU Mutual’s 2025 Rural Crime Report estimating it cost farmers £3.4 million in 2024. The brutality of this case, however, echoes other extreme incidents in Kent, such as the discovery of eight stolen sheep carcasses in late 2023, one with its head cleanly severed.
A Suspicious Vehicle and an Ongoing Probe
In the aftermath, the farm bosses reported seeing a red car acting suspiciously on the nearby A2 road. “As things were calming down, we noticed a car on the A2 kept going up and down, which now I’m pretty sure the police are investigating,” Clive Burgess added. Kent Police confirmed they received a report that a sheep had been killed in a field off Hansletts Lane and that officers attended to carry out initial inquiries, with an investigation ongoing.
Poaching, a crime centuries old but now often highly organised, inflicts significant financial and emotional damage on farmers, with perpetrators frequently causing collateral damage to crops, fields, and fences. Kent has seen a notable problem, with nearly 700 poaching incidents recorded in one recent annual period. The county’s dedicated Rural Task Force often investigates such crimes, having previously made arrests in cases involving suspected poachers found with catapults, torches, and dead game.
While livestock worrying by dogs is a more frequently reported rural crime, this incident appears separate. The recent Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Act 2025 introduced tougher penalties for such attacks, which cost an estimated £1.95 million in 2025. The deliberate killing and mutilation of the ewe, however, falls under animal cruelty legislation, where penalties can include up to five years in jail and unlimited fines.
The motive for the decapitation remains unclear. In past cases, sheep have been mutilated for their horns, taken as souvenirs or for crafting. Other incidents reveal a trend of sadistic cruelty, such as the February 2026 jailing of two agricultural students for a brutal attack on a ewe, and the 2023 arrest of two Kent students for allegedly killing a sheep on the South Downs.
