'Burnt' butterfly with 'singed' wings discovered in Elmswell

On Saturday afternoon, mum-of-two Amy-Lea Williams was disembarking a train at Elmswell station when her toddler spotted the Red Admiral.

"She knelt down and could see it was dead," said Miss Williams.

"She was upset so I inspected it and saw that it had been burnt, both its wing and body had been singed."

The Red Admiral butterfly was discovered dead near Elmswell station. (Image: Amy-Lea Williams)

Miss Williams added that the damage couldn't have been caused by the sun, as it was raining on Sunday and said she had noticed a burning smell when she got off the train, but hadn't realised it was coming from the butterfly.

"I think it had been burnt deliberately but I don't know why anyone would ever do that," she said.

"I didn’t tell my daughter what had happened. She understood that the butterfly was dead but I don’t think a two and a half year old needs to know of such things."

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Only the week before, Miss Williams and her children had been admiring how many butterflies were inhabiting the wildflower spaces nearby.

Taking to Facebook to share the bad news, Elmswell residents agreed that it looked like it had been burnt, saying the perpetrator is "disgusting," "evil," and a "wicked person".

Over half of all British butterflies are now on the UK Red List of species in danger of extinction.

While the Red Admiral butterfly involved in this incident is low on the conservation priority list, UK butterflies have shown a particularly fast decline in both abundance and distribution over recent years.

Other Elmswell residents on social media said: "There are some cruel and sadistic people in our world unfortunately... what is wrong with people?"