POLICE are hunting sadistic thugs who crucified a cat on a graveyard cross.

The gruesome discovery was made by a mother and her teenage daughter as they walked through the cemetery.

The cat's stomach had been slashed open and it was crudely lashed with wire to the ten-foot stone cross by its paws.

The animal was killed under a full moon at Benton Cemetery, Newcastle, and may have been lashed to the cross while still alive.

Churchyard caretaker George Rodgers, 45, said: "I have never seen anything like this in my life - it is appalling.

"How could anyone do a thing like this to a creature as harmless as a cat?"

His wife Ann, 38, and daughter Gemma, 13, stumbled on the grisly scene as they took a shortcut through the cemetery.

Mrs Rodgers said: "Gemma saw it and started screaming and crying, it was awful. We kept walking and I rang my husband when we were well past it.

"We were both shaken. I don't think I will ever get that sight out of my mind."

It is just the latest disturbance at the cemetery.

Graveyard worker Keith Anderson said: 'We have a lot of kids hanging around here who cause trouble and it is getting worse,

"Recently, seven headstones were kicked over and in November the wreaths of poppies laid for Remembrance Day were stolen."

A spokesman for the RSPCA said: "This was a truly shocking discovery and we are liaising with the police in our investigation.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: "This was a sickening act of cruelty and we are determined to catch those responsible.