A mother and father have been found guilty of being in charge of a dog that caused injury while dangerously out of control after their three-year-old son died in a savage attack on a farm.
But don’t start cheering yet, because:
They were both cleared of gross negligence manslaughter.
How?!
The prosecution said his parents' negligence meant the toddler was 'alone and unsupervised' when he entered a yard where two large, 'dangerous' and 'powerful' 50kg guard dogs were kept. Although the dogs - a Cane Corso called Sid and Tiny, a Boerboel type dog - belonged to farm owner Matthew Brown, the couple were looking after them at the time and should have known the risks to Daniel, jurors were told.
Indeed, they didn’t need to rely merely on common sense, either, they were specifically warned by the authorities:
Daniel's parents, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, had also ignored warnings from the RSPCA that the animals were a danger, it was claimed.
Furthermore, the jury heard how Rochdale Council Children’s Services staff visited the farm just three days before the attack and expressed concerns, which included signs of 'neglect' of Daniel and that he was 'in danger' from the dogs. The pair asserted that Daniel was used to being around dogs on the farm and they didn’t regard them as dangerous or aggressive.
This was a lie. A blatant one:
The jury were told of a text message she sent to Twigg in the weeks prior to the attack when she said she was 'living in fear', which she said referred to 'a build up of events'. But she admitted wanting to move back to the family home in Blackley, Manchester, and telling a neighbour she was 'terrorised' living at the farm because dogs escaped all the time.
And it wasn’t the only one:
Mr Elvidge also pressed her on why she’d not mentioned visiting the toilet in her accounts to police. Bedford said she’d just wanted to be with Daniel and 'wasn’t focusing', had felt 'fear' towards police and had suffered PTSD.
From what, we aren’t told.
The couple were granted bail and will be sentenced on October 10.
But not, I feel sure, to what they deserve.
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