A FARMER told today of his horror after finding sheep mutilated and shot in an orgy of violence.

John Pickard revealed how one animal had its head hacked off, another had been shot in the throat with an air rifle and a month old lamb had been thrown on a fire.

The champion sheep breeder said the incident at Bradley Hall Farm, Great Harwood, had left him "sickened and confused."

He said: "I can't explain why anyone would do something like this.

"It beggars belief. I have lived here all my life and I have never seen anything like this before. "

Six men were arrested by police and later released without charge. Three others are believed to have left before the police arrived.

They were all aged in their late teens and early twenties.

The first gruesome discovery was made when police were called to Dean Woods on Sunday morning after a report of youths vandalising a timber shelter in Blackburn Old Road.

The officers found the head of a sheep and then the charred body of the lamb on a camp fire in the woods.

A sheep's body was found in a pool of blood nearby. Mr Pickard discovered a second sheep in a ditch the following day.

He said: "It looks like it had been shot and then got away before dying in the ditch.

"The first animal's back legs had been broken. The whole thing was barbaric."

The RSPCA has taken away the dead animals and items of blood stained clothing taken from the men arrested. They will all be examined forensically.

A spokesman for the RSPCA said: "The men were interviewed at Accrington police station by both our inspectors and police, and were later released pending further inquiries.

"There is not much we can say at this stage but we are working together with the police and are appealing for any witnesses to come forward. Any information will be treated in confidence."

He added that if the RSPCA were able to collect sufficient evidence in this case they would prosecute.

Inspector Stuart Whittle, of Great Harwood Police, said: "We are not pressing charges on this matter. It is for the RSPCA to decide whether these people will be prosecuted. We are liaising with them."

The RSPCA could press charges against individuals which - depending on the severity of the case - could lead to custodial sentences.

Mr Pickard said teenagers often camp out in the woods but he had never had any problems with them in the past.

He added: "Most people come into the countryside and respect it, but when something like this happens it just sickens you.

"I think they have shot the animals to slow them down so they could catch them.

"The head of the sheep had been hacked off with an axe or a cleaver."