COX TOR on Dartmoor is as bleak and lonely as anywhere in southern England. Now, for dozens of farmers who graze their sheep on the surrounding commons, it is also a place of fear. This month alone more than 30 sheep grazing there have been found mutilated and laid out in bizarre patterns.

In some cases their eyes have been gouged out and their tongues and sexual organs removed. Most have been strangled or had their necks broken.

The killings began in January last year when seven sheep were found laid out in the shape of a seven-pointed star. The killings have increased in recent months.

Some say they are the work of Satanists, as they appear to be linked to particular phases of the Moon. Others fear that sexual sadists are using the animals to sate a blood lust.

Another more mundane theory is that the killings somehow began with a grudge over the closure to the public of Vixen Tor, one of Dartmoor’s best-known landmarks. The owner of the Tor is among those who have lost sheep.

Devon and Cornwall Police, whose inquiries have proved fruitless, believe that the killings are linked to occult rituals and ancient sites on the moor, where more sinister sacrifices may once have taken place.

The killings have shocked a farming community still recovering from the devastation caused by the foot-and-mouth outbreak five years ago.

Charles Mudge, a farmer who owned several of the sheep, said: “It’s so disgusting. We feel we have let our animals down when we discover them in such a state. We don’t know how they are doing it, but we believe they must be people with dogs and have got to be used to handling sheep.”

Another farmer, who did not want to be named, said: “I’ve never seen anything like the bruising on the animal. It must have died in agony. It must have been held for a very long time and had blood in its lungs from trying to breathe.”

On September 11, 18 sheep belonging to three farmers were found dead and mutilated near Cox Tor. Their bodies had been laid out in “ritualistic” patterns. Over the following week at least a dozen more carcasses were found.

The RSPCA is awaiting post-mortem examinations on several sheep. Inspector Becky Wadey said: “Even if we can find out what has happened to them we still have to find the people responsible. We are drawing a blank but somebody must know something or have seen something.”

Cherry Seage, secretary of the Dartmoor commoners’ council, which represents the moorland farmers, said that the attacks were becoming increasingly vicious. “We are worried they may not end with sheep. The animals have been traumatised and stifled. These sheep are wild and live on the open moor. It is difficult to know how people can get hold of them,” she said.

Professor Ian Mercer, chairman of the council, said that the killings were having a profound psychological effect on the farmers. “Somebody’s stupid ritual is affecting farmers’ livelihoods and their own wellbeing,” he said. “The psychological situation in the farm household — ‘what shall we find tomorrow?’ — is probably more harmful than the loss of stock.”

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• Linklaters trounces rivals as UK's biggest firm
• Clifford Chance profits plunge 37 per cent
• Casual drinkers hit by spread of 'dry' zones