A mutilated deer found along a footpath near Stalham could be yet more evidence of a big cat thought to be prowling around Norfolk.The carcass was discovered by 18-year-old Diana Turner and a friend as they walked along Weavers Way near Stepping Stone Lane just outside Stalham.

A mutilated deer found along a footpath near Stalham could be yet more evidence of a big cat thought to be prowling around Norfolk.

The carcass was discovered by 18-year-old Diana Turner and a friend as they walked along Weavers Way near Stepping Stone Lane just outside Stalham.

The teenagers were shocked when they found the small deer and took a photograph which they later showed to Barrie Slater, the father of Miss Turner's boyfriend.

Mr Slater said they had struggled to think of anything else that could have caused the damaged - other that a large, and perhaps feral, dog. He said: 'There is nothing around big enough to do that much damage. It appears to have had its neck broken which is the sort of thing big cats do. It's an enormous bite.'

Mr Slater contacted us about the deer after seeing photographs of the huge scratches supposedly left by a big cat on a tree near North Walsham on Sunday April 5.

Shaun Baxter, a house husband from Bowthorpe, near Norwich, said he saw the black panther leaving his mark while out shooting rabbits in a field off Bacton Road between North Walsham and Edingthorpe.