An international network that shares online videos of cats and kittens being tortured has members in the UK, the BBC has found.

The network is thought to have thousands of members who post, share and sell graphic images and videos of cats being hurt and killed.

In one group, on an encrypted messaging app, the BBC found evidence of British members suggesting users adopt kittens from the RSPCA to mutilate.

The BBC investigation comes after two teenagers admitted torturing and killing two kittens in a park in Ruislip, north-west London, in May. They are due to be sentenced on Monday.

The following report contains graphic content and descriptions of animal cruelty.

The 16-year-old girl, and boy, aged 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty after the kittens were found cut open and strung up. Knives, blowtorches and scissors were also found at the scene.

It is understood that police are now looking into possible links to a wider network of cat torturers who film, post and sell footage of attacks on encrypted messaging apps.

These groups started in China, but BBC News has identified members now active across the world, including in the UK.

The scale of the network has been documented by animal rights activists Feline Guardians.

The group says between May 2023 and May 2024, a new video showing the torture and execution of a kitten or cat was uploaded approximately every 14 hours.

It says it has documented 24 groups active this year, the largest of which had more than 1,000 members. The most active torturer is believed to have filmed the torture and killing of more than 200 cats.

Chat conversations in one group, seen by the BBC, include what appear to be UK-based accounts discussing how to get hold of cats to abuse.

One member discussed how to adopt kittens from the RSPCA and posted application forms. Another post shared an advert for kittens for sale in the UK, posting that they wanted to “torture them so bad”.

Lara is a volunteer with Feline Guardians. We have agreed not to use her full name for fear of reprisals.

She said: “Every day I feel heartbroken, there is not a day that goes past that I don’t feel like my heart is breaking.”

She has spent time undercover in the forums and says there is no limit to the pain the torturers are prepared to inflict.

She describes it as the “depths of evil”.

Videos and photographs seen by the BBC are graphic and extremely disturbing.

They include footage of cats being drowned and electrocuted. One video speculates on how long a kitten in a cage will survive if it is not given food.

Group members appear to want to inflict as much pain as possible. In online chats, torturers explain how they use electrocution to resuscitate a cat in order to prolong suffering.

New members are encouraged to mutilate and post videos to gain access to a wider network.

The BBC saw evidence that suggested children were taking part in these groups. One member posted: “I’m 10 years old and I like to torture cats.”

In September 2023, the network even promoted a “100 cat kill” competition, during which members were encouraged to see how quickly the group could torture and kill 100 cats.

Videos depicting the horrific torture of cats first went viral in China in 2023.

The man responsible for two extremely graphic videos, Wang Chaoyi, was detained for 15 days by the Chinese authorities and forced to issue a “letter of repentance”.

But his footage developed a cult following and others began making similar content for Chinese and Western social media, gaining thousands of views, before groups developed on encrypted messaging apps.

One website even describes itself as a place for the “cat-lover community” and requests viewers “submit your work”.

Users can only gain access if they provide evidence of their own cat torture.

“Little Winnie” is a well known name used in the cat torture community for having a profile picture that mocks the Chinese leader Xi Jinping with an image of Winnie the Pooh.

Accounts with that name and profile picture are described as administrators in a number of forums.

An activist from Feline Guardians got in touch with one of those Little Winnie accounts and lured the man behind it into an online relationship.

“I felt disgusted having to be friendly and then having to have this friendship with him,” the activist, who does not want to be named, said.

She communicated for several weeks and infiltrated the network.

“It was just an endless scroll of torture videos, one after the other,” she said. “I felt, ‘I just can’t watch this’. Even though I’m messaging him, I can’t watch this. I had to sort of turn off my brain.”

Eventually she persuaded the man behind the account to do a video call. From that call, the group identified a 27-year-old man living in the Japanese capital Tokyo.

When contacted by the BBC, the man said he categorically denied any involvement in these activities.

Lara, from Feline Guardians, told us that law enforcement and governments need to tackle the groups, saying “it will only continue to expand and get worse”.

Feline Guardians has held demonstrations outside the Chinese Embassy, in London, demanding that authorities in Beijing do more.

“In mainland China, there are no laws that are stopping this. So that means that abusers and torturers can effectively do what they want and live out these very sadistic fantasies without any consequence. These videos are then uploaded, and essentially that’s a global problem, because that means that everyone has access to these videos. Children are seeing this,” Lara said.

Ian Briggs, head of the RSPCA’s special operations unit, told the BBC: “Treating animals in this way is absolutely not acceptable and has no place in a modern society that is largely made up of kind, compassionate animal lovers.”

Johanna Baxter MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cats, said these groups were “a deeply worrying trend, particularly among young men”.

“Animal abuse often acts as a gateway, making future acts of violence easier to rationalise and commit,” she added.