**GRAPHIC IMAGES**
These disturbing photos show inside a filthy house where starving cats resorted to CANNIBALISM.
Cruel Damien Beales, 21, and Robert High, 22, were arrested after RSPCA inspectors found the bodies of five decomposing and half-eaten cats.
It is thought up to 10 cats had been left so hungry, they had resorted to eating the carcasses to survive.
Other shocking images from inside the Stoneycroft property, on Northgate Road in Liverpool, Merseyside., revealed piles of rubbish and faeces all over the floor.
Beales and High had reportedly moved out in the days prior, and their landlord was so stunned by the state of the house he called Merseyside Police on May 1.
The house was said to smell like ‘faecal matter, cat urine, ammonia and decomposing animal carcasses’.
RSPCA Inspector Claire Fisher visited the disgusting property and was told the pair had taken the surviving cats with them to a new home.
She became concerned for the animals’ welfare and the men were quickly located at another property in Kirkdale.
The men were found to have 10 cats with them, many of which Inspector Fisher deemed to be underweight.
The cats were seized under the Animal Welfare Act and taken for a veterinary examination, before being passed over the RSPCA.
Beales and High, who now live in James Street, Barrow-in-Furness, pleaded guilty to two animal welfare offences and were sentenced at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
They were both given 16-week prison sentences suspended for 12 months and banned from keeping animals for life.
During the court case, Inspector Fisher said in her witness statement: “There was a very strong smell within the premises, one of faecal matter, cat urine, ammonia, decomposed animal carcasses and general filth.
“Given the combination of general conditions and having now seen the carcasses of a number of cats on the living room floor, it was disturbing to consider that the men would have been stepping over or around the carcasses of these cats, as they sat on the sofas daily.”
In mitigation, the court was told the pair had mental health issues.
Beales and High were each ordered to pay £500 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.
