A three -year -old boy was killed in a farm dog attack, left with “dangerous” and “aggressive” animals for at least 15 minutes, a court has been told.
Daniel Twig was attacked himself after going to a trapped yard, where two dogs were described as a large mastiff – placed on 15 May 2022 on Rochdel’s car farm, Rochdel. He suffered injuries including cutting on the neck and died on the spot.
Their parents Joan Bedford and Mark Twig have denied gross negligence and crimes under the act of dangerous dogs.
His trial in Manchester Crown Court was told that the incident was “not a small rapid attack”.
Daniel’s family went to the farm to take care of property in March 2022 and the court heard by the court.
The names of two dogs attacking Daniel – Sid and Tiny – were about 110 pounds (50 kg) and were used for breeding and as guard dogs.
The court was told that soon after the incident, Ms. Bedford told a police officer that other family members were in the garden when Daniel disappeared, before he used to hear the dogs attacking her.
He told the officer: “We went straight but he had already gone. They killed him correctly.”
But John Elviz Casey said for the prosecution that Daniel was ignored with dogs for at least 15 minutes, and Ms. Bedford “failed to give the police an account to leave Daniel for so long”.
He said that Daniel’s parents knew that he had gone to the pen himself first and was well aware that he liked and was very attracted to dogs.
Ms. Bedford later told the police that Daniel was out of her vision for only a “few minutes”.
Mr. Elviz had asked the court to “clearly disregard” the defendants warning an RSPCA inspector who recently visited the farm.
He said that Inspector was so concerned about the number of dangerous dogs and the possible threat to Daniel that he reported his concerns to the police.
Mr. Twigs were not in the field at the time of testing.
His defense barrister Andrew Thomas Casey said Mr. Twig was working 15 miles away and “left Daniel under his mother’s care”.
The court was read with WhatsApp messages between Ms. Bedford and a neighbor, Lean Thornton. In one, Ms. Thornton described Tiny as a “tick time bomb”.
Ms. Bedford broke into the dock as the later CCTV footage after the attack was shown to the jury.
The footage showed a neighbor, carrying a knife, running on the pen where Daniel was badly injured. He returned after minutes of his home, blindly shaken.
The test is going on.
