S'pore man, 31, accused of strangling kitten in Bali resort
A 31-year-old man from Singapore has been accused of strangling a kitten at a resort in Bali.
Details of the case were shared on social media by the resort, Utama Villa Tulamben, on June 15.
According to the Facebook post, the incident took place on June 5. The post included a Google Drive link which had CCTV photos and screengrabs of documents, including a police report lodged over the matter.
The man was allegedly caught on surveillance camera outside the resort office numerous times after 12am on June 5.
In one footage, recorded at 10.30am, the man is seen lifting out of the office window a six-week-old kitten named Monkey, which was being cared for by resort staff.
The accused was also seen on camera moments later holding the ginger-white kitten elsewhere in the compound, allegedly en route to his villa.
The kitten was not seen on any of the 12 surveillance cameras located across the property after that.
At 10:37am, the man is seen leaving his room, without the kitten, to meet a woman at the resort’s restaurant. They return to their room at 10:42am.
A minute later, at 10:43am, a yellow Prime supermarket plastic bag is captured being tossed out of the man's bathroom, landing on the lawn of a neighbouring villa. Prime is a chain of supermarkets in Singapore.
Resort staff discovered the kitten missing at 12.30pm and conducted a search. But it was only at 8:10am the next day that the kitten was found dead in the yellow plastic bag. It had a cable around its neck, suggesting it was strangled.
The resorts said authorities in Bali are investigating the case, and are looking into the allegations of breaking and entering, theft, and animal cruelty.
CONFRONTED
During the search for the kitten, the resort said its staff had reviewed CCTV footage and confronted the man, who initially denied taking the kitten.
However, when he was shown a screengrab of him holding the kitten, he admitted to taking it from the office, but claimed that the animal later ran away.
The resort said: "We are aware that we do not have actual footage of him killing the kitten, as the privacy of our guests are of the utmost importance to us.
“Nevertheless, our CCTV cameras did record moments of suspicion, and we urge you to review the footage to draw your own conclusions."
According to Mothership, who spoke to the resort, the man in question left the villa, along with his partner, on June 5 at 11am. This was shortly after he was seen in possession of the kitten.
Documents shared by the resort indicate that he was an employee at Sengkang General Hospital (SKH).
SKH, however, has clarified, in the comments section of the post, that the accused had not been under its employ since February 2020.
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