I couldn’t rest after evil predator knifed my cat & sliced off his ears – but his next move was even more sinister
When Georgina Barnes warned police of a sick cat mutilator prowling the streets of Norwich, she had no idea the grim trail would lead them all the way to London and Merseyside - and the scene of a grisly murder.
Would-be serial killer David Iwo battered a trusting pensioner to death with a hammer after tricking his way into his home by posing as a rent boy.
When cops finally caught him, he boasted he would have killed more people - having nurtured his bloodlust by slashing family pets like Georgina's and leaving them for dead.
Speaking to The Sun, Georgina - mum to Alissa, 14, and Scarlett, six - admits she feared at the time that maiming cats was "a practice run for something more sinister" after Iwo sliced off her cat Bubba's ears.
She says: “I know it wasn’t my fault but I can’t help wondering if I could have done more to stop him.”
Her family’s nightmare unfolded in April 2019, as she and Alissa enjoyed a movie night together at their home in Norwich.
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Playworker Georgina, 30, explains: “Scarlett was on a sleepover at my mum’s, while Alissa and I spent some quality time together, painting our nails and watching a film.
“I’d just slipped my toes into the foot spa when we heard the front door handle rattle. This was Bubba’s signature trick - it was his way of letting us know he wanted to come in.
“Alissa jumped up to open the door and Bubba sauntered in, stretched out on the sofa and seemed to doze off.
“We were both engrossed in the film and didn’t pay too much attention to him, but then a flash of red against Bubba’s white fur caught the corner of my eye.
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“I moved in for a closer look and had to stifle a scream. Bubba had a five-inch gash in his side, exposing muscle and fat.
"He wasn’t acting as though he was in pain but it must have been absolute agony.”
Thinking Bubba had been hit by a car, Georgina called out for partner Dee Brown, 36, who checked him over and made another horrifying discovery.
“Part of one of his ears was missing too,” says Georgina. “We had to get him to a vet so I called my mum Sue to give me a lift, then popped to a neighbour to borrow a cat carrier.
“The neighbour followed me back to the house, gave Bubba a once -over and spotted that both his ears had been neatly severed.
“He was adamant this was no car accident or catfight - he thought someone had done this to him deliberately.”
Grim diagnosis
After rushing Bubba to an emergency vet, Georgina was relieved to hear her pet would survive but needed stitches.
And he confirmed the grim diagnosis: his view was the cat had been tortured.
“The cuts on his ears were too neat and tidy to be anything else,” explains Georgina. “He thought they’d been done with a knife.”
As Bubba, now nine, recovered at the vet, Georgina gave a statement to the police, warning the officer they had to catch the culprit "before it escalated".
But with only a rough time and date to go on, there was little they could do.
More victims
Bubba spent five days at the vet. In the meantime, Georgina posted a warning on a local pets group on Facebook.
“Whoever had slashed Bubba and cut off his ears was still out there,” Georgina recalls.
“I grew more and more anxious, jumping at shadows and suspecting every stranger I passed in the street.”
Over the next couple of weeks Georgina’s worst fears began to come true as reports surfaced on in local papers and on social media of other cats being mutilated.
Whoever had slashed Bubba and cut off his ears was still out there. I grew more and more anxious, jumping at shadows and suspecting every stranger I passed in the street
Georgina Barnes
One showed up on its owner’s doorstep with its ears cut off - just like Bubba. Cat body parts were found on an allotment. One cat was found dead.
“Our sleepy neighbourhood was turning into something out of a sick horror movie,” says Georgina.
Then, police had a breakthrough.
Killer's arrest
A man was spotted trying to stuff a cat into a bag - but did a runner when he was challenged. A few days later, cops arrested David Iwo.
He was due in Norwich Magistrates Court in February last year, accused of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, but he didn't turn up.
Georgina explains: “Everyone was calling him the NR3 Cat Killer. People kept their pets in the house for fear he might strike again.”
A month later Georgina had a call from Witness Care, who told her Iwo was in custody after being arrested on suspicion of a more serious offence - the murder of pensioner Martin Decker.
Georgina says: “My heart sank a few days later when the news broke that he had been charged with murder.
“I felt so guilty. I knew deep down that I was blameless, but still, I couldn’t eat or sleep. Away from the kids, I’d cry my eyes out in the shower.”
Sinister confession
In September last year Iwo, from Norwich, pleaded guilty to murder at Preston Crown Court.
A month later he appeared at Norwich Crown Court by video link, accused of five animal cruelty charges - including the attack on Bubba - plus two counts of attempted theft of cats.
He refused to enter pleas and instead told the court: “I don’t care about this case. F**k your cats.”
He went on to boast of mutilating as many as 30, and crowed: “If you want the ears, I can tell you where they are.”
Finally, in November last year, Iwo was jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years.
Human victim
The court heard how Iwo had gone on the run after his cat torture spree in Norwich, and posed online as a sex worker.
When retired lawyer Mr Decker, 69, offered him £250 for a two-hour session at his flat on the Wirral, Merseyside, Iwo bludgeoned him to death with a hammer.
Iwo stole cash and electrical items before fleeing to Dartford, Kent, where he was staying with a woman.
However, she grew frightened of Iwo and called the police when he refused to leave.
At that stage, officers had no reason to suspect the homeless 24-year-old and sent him on his way.
I don’t care about this case. F**k your cats. If you want the ears, I can tell you where they are
David Iwo
He was later identified through CCTV and tracked to a hotel in London in March 2021. Police raided his room and found Mr Decker’s watch and laptop.
A return visit to the address in Dartford turned up another chilling find - a blood-stained claw hammer stashed under the cushion of a sofa.
Iwo boasted to detectives that he would never have stopped killing and robbing gay men. He even told doctors that murder was a progression from his ‘hobby’ of mutilating cats - just as Georgina had chillingly predicted.
In a letter to a psychiatrist, he wrote that he got a kick out of watching cats struggle while he killed them.
“I used to enjoy watching the owners' efforts on Facebook and in community posters as they attempted to find their lost cats. I knew they were dead,” he wrote.
Bubba made a full recovery from his ordeal - but Georgina still worries whenever he leaves the house.
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“Even though I’ve never met them, I feel awful for Martin Decker’s family,” she says.
“It’s hard to believe anyone could be so cruel. The only consolation is that the NR3 Cat Killer is locked away, where he belongs.”
