A resident of a quiet Worcestershire town has captured startling footage of what appears to be a large, mysterious cat prowling a residential driveway in the dead of night.
The Midnight Visitor
Steven Searle, 51, was woken at 2.23am on Sunday, 28 December, when his home security system was triggered. Reviewing the footage from his house in Malvern, he was stunned to see a dark, dog-sized animal walking purposefully along his neighbour's path. The creature was captured padding next to a fence, moving past a gate, and then slinking away into the darkness.
"I woke up as our CCTV was set off and caught what looks to be a black jaguar-type big cat walking up the neighbour's path," Steven told news outlet What's The Jam. He emphasised the animal's size, noting: "It triggered the CCTV so it is big. None of the domestic cats in the close have ever done that."
Evidence of a Larger Predator
Steven, who has lived at the property for about a year, explained how he had calibrated his security camera. "Normal cats do not set off the CCTV due to how I've set it up," he said. "It only ever gets triggered by people or cars. I set it like that so it doesn't go off all the time." He described the animal as being head height to the bonnet of a car and clearly larger than a typical domestic pet.
His account was corroborated by a neighbour further up the road, who reported seeing a large animal walk past his house late at night, though he had no recording of the event.
Scientific Backing for UK Big Cats
This sighting adds weight to longstanding claims that non-native big cats are living wild in Britain. Last year, Professor Robin Allaby from the University of Warwick found definitive DNA proof of their presence. His analysis of a sample taken from a sheep's carcass in the Lake District revealed 'Panthera genus' DNA. This genetic marker means the sample could only have come from a lion, leopard, tiger, jaguar, or snow leopard.
Based on such evidence, some experts now believe up to 100 big cats could be on the loose and prowling through the British countryside. The remains of the sheep analysed by Professor Allaby were discovered by walker Sharon Larkin-Snowden in Cumbria, linking forensic science to eyewitness accounts from across the nation.
While the Malvern footage offers tantalising visual evidence, it continues the debate about the hidden predators that may be sharing the UK's rural and semi-rural landscapes.
