Sean Garner claims that John McColl entered his garden and freed the XL bully from a locked shed before he was ‘savaged’ to death
Sean Garner(Image: ALAN DEMPSEY)
A dad whose XL bully killed a pensioner was asked “what planet are you on?” as his account at trial was branded “ludicrous” by the prosecution. The dog, called Toretto, had to be shot 10 times by firearms officers after “savaging” 84-year-old John McColl, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court have been told.
It came after the “confused” OAP entered the driveway of alleged “irresponsible” owner Sean Garner’s then home on Bardsley Avenue in Warrington while on his way home from the pub on February 24 last year. Neighbours attempted to stave off the attack using a brush, a golf club and a spirit level but to no avail as the banned breed “guarded” the elderly victim “as if he were its prey or its food”.
Garner, now of Dinaro Close in Belle Vale, was meanwhile said to have “made jokes while doctors were valiantly trying to save Mr McColl’s life”, having earlier described his “family pet” as “missing a few nuts and bolts”. The 31-year-old, a former XL bully breeder, is currently on trial accused of causing Mr McColl’s death by being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog.
Appearing suited in the witness box, Garner began giving evidence to the court yesterday. At the close of his questioning, his counsel Lloyd Morgan played to the court a video showing one of the defendant’s young daughters stroking another XL bully, Malibu, which was also shot dead by police at the scene.
Asked whether his “daughter had effectively grown up with Malibu”, Garner said: “Yeah, she’s never not been in her life. She’s absolutely devastated Malibu is not here anymore. She still cries about it today.”
David Birrell, prosecuting, then began his cross-examination, and asked Garner whether he was “looking for sympathy” by showing these videos to the court. He replied: “No, I’m looking for sympathy for a dog that was killed for no apparent reason.”
Mr Birrell then put to him: “The family of Mr McColl are in court. Do you think they miss him? Do you think they’re deserving of sympathy?”
To these questions, Garner responded “of course they miss him” and “yes, they are”. Mr Birrell went on to state that his previous conviction for dangerous driving and possession of cannabis with intent to supply in 2020 had related to an incident where he “took off” when the police attempted to stop him in the Halewood area.
While Garner said that this was “six years ago, when I was a child”, the prosecution counsel continued: “You crashed the car. You fled. You ran away. When they found you, you refused to give a sample for a drug test.
“You were strip searched. They found cannabis in your boxer shorts. They searched your home. They found more cannabis. This was in June 2020. At the time, your eldest daughter was in that house with those drugs. A baby. You had a load of cannabis in a house with a baby.”
Garner, who was also convicted of driving under the influence of cannabis after being stopped again the following month, stated that these drugs were kept in a “separate room she didn’t have access to”. Asked whether he had still been smoking cannabis at the time of the dog attack, he replied: “No. Was there any cannabis found at the premises or anything like that?
Having admitted that he was driving his flatbed truck while disqualified on the day of the incident as part of his vehicle recovery business, Garner said: “I shouldn’t have. I normally have two drivers that drive for me.”
When it was put to him that he was “breaking the law deliberately”, he replied “to feed my family”. Mr Birrell went on to add: “You admit now that your dogs were XL bullies. You claim you didn’t know at the time. That’s rubbish. You knew all along you had XL bullies. You bred dogs, including XL bullies. You knew what XL bullies were.”
Garner responded: “I’ve owned numerous sizes of dogs. In my best opinion, what I know, them dogs didn’t meet the criteria at the time. That’s why they was not registered.”
Asked “what he liked about those dogs”, Garner “the temperament, the temperament of my dogs”. When Mr Birrell added “what about the temperament of your dog on the 24th of February last year?”, he responded: “His temperament was due to an incident, an unfortunate incident that no one could ever imagine would happen.”
Garner went on to deny that Toretto had previously injured his mum or fought with his other XL bully. Asked about the “dog’s state of mind” in relation to a message he had previously sent to his mother, where he labelled his pet as “missing a few nuts and bolts”, he said: “The dog’s state of mind was perfectly normal. He’s 100 miles an hour. He’s excited as anything, any time he sees my mother.”
Mr Birrell went on to state of Garner’s case: “You’re saying that Toretto was in the shed at the time of the incident. You’re saying the tool shed was secured with a bolt and padlock. You’re saying there was also a gate on a latch, and also on a chain with a clip.
“You say, John McColl, he trespassed onto your patio, and he let your dog out of your shed. John McColl, would you agree, a frail old man? We saw a video of him walking. Would you agree, he’s unsteady on his feet, shuffling? Never been in trouble before, didn’t like dogs, especially big dogs, according to his daughter.
“There’s a small gap between the left hand side of the car and the wall that has the gate. Your case, is this frail old man squeezed down the side of that car. You’re saying, somehow, in the dark, he found the clip on the chain. Somehow, he unclipped it and, somehow, he unchained the gate. You say he then lifted the latch, presumably.
“You say he went through the archway. He’s now on your patio. It’s still dark. He navigate all of the dog poo. He goes to your shed. For some reason, this man, who doesn’t like dogs especially big dogs, this old man, who has never been in trouble before, opens the padlock to your shed, takes it off, throws it away, because it was found some way away from the shed. You say he then unbolted the shed, let the dog out and then he shuffles back along the patio, the dog doesn’t attack him, to the driveway.”
Garner responded in relation to his dog: “He goes missing for about three or four minutes. You see him come back to the address. I think that’s when John McColl has been at the side of the car with the gate shut and that’s when the attack has happened.”
But Mr Birrell put to him: “That’s what you think has happened. What planet are you living on? It’s ludicrous, what you’re suggesting.”
Garner, however, replied: “No, no. The dog, as you can see on CCTV, is not out for two hours before John McColl enters my premises, opens my gate and opens my shed.”
John McColl, 84, died after he was attacked by an XL Bully(Image: Cheshire Police)
Mr Birrell previously told the jury of eight men and four women during the prosecution’s opening that Mr McColl had “for some reason, wandered into the defendant’s driveway” at around 6pm on February 24 last year. He added: “We will never know why he did it. Perhaps he was confused. He had been to the pub, although he had not had very much to drink. We will never know.
“What we do know is that, after he entered the defendant’s driveway, the dog attacked him, and it just would not let him go. People tried to help him, grown men with weapons, hitting the dog. But it was no use. The dog would not let him go. The dog guarded him as if he were its prey. It savaged him.
“The police were called, and they arrived on the scene quickly. But the first police officers, who were unarmed, could not get to Mr McColl. Firearms officers came with guns. They had to shoot the dog. They had to shoot it 10 times.”
Mr Birrell detailed how one officer was required to shoot the XL bully nine times with a pistol while another blasted the “large, savage dog” with a shotgun. PCs then also shot dead a second, female XL bully which was found on the property so as to “not to take any chances”.
Meanwhile, Mr McColl was rushed to hospital but died a month later from his injuries. Police reportedly attempted to contact Garner and asked him to return home during a phone call, but he was instead said to have “avoided police” as family members messaged him “advising him to lie”.
Mr Birrell added of these texts: “He made light of the situation. He was making jokes while doctors were valiantly trying to save John McColl’s life. He avoided the police for two days before he handed himself in.”
Garner, who appeared suited in the dock, was then said to have “lied” under interview, having claimed that the dog had “never shown any sign of aggression”, although Toretto was evidenced to have fought with the other XL bully, Malibu, and injured the defendant’s mother previously. He also claimed that the dog was not an XL bully, although he “now admits that”.
Mr Birrell said: “In this trial, he is likely to tell you more lies. He is likely to claim that he kept the dog in a tool shed or something like that. We will hear evidence from a neighbour and from a police dog expert, who tells us that the dog was not kept in a tool shed but was kept on a patio. It was covered in dog faeces, dog poo. All there was keeping the dog on that patio was a metal gate with a latch.”
While Garner claimed under interview that the gate was “locked with a bolt”, Mr Birrell told the court: “There was no bolt, just that latch that we can see. We say that this dog, this large, powerful dog, could very easily have pawed that latch. We say that is probably what happened.
“However the dog got out, after it got out, it was dangerously out of control. And, whilst it was dangerously out of control, it attacked and it killed Mr McColl, and we say that the defendant is responsible.
“He is responsible because he kept the dog when he knew it was dangerous. He knew that it had fought with other dogs and hurt people. We will see text messages where he said that it was ‘missing a few nuts and bolts’, and yet he kept it.
“He is responsible because he did not feed the dog properly. A police dog expert will tell us that the dog had not been fed for some time. There was no food in its stomach. The expert will tell us that, if dogs are left hungry, then they can become irritable and aggressive. The expert will tell us that the dog appeared to be guarding Mr McColl as if he were its prey or its food.
“We say that he was an irresponsible dog owner. He did not have an exemption certificate for the dog. He did not have a certificate for the other XL bully either. Despite that, he was breeding these dogs. He was breeding more illegal XL bullies to make money. Irresponsible, we say, reckless.
“In this trial, he might try to argue that Mr McColl was somehow to blame for entering his driveway. There is no doubt that John McColl entered his driveway. That does not excuse what happened. It does not absolve him of responsibility.
“All sorts of people might enter your driveway. Postmen, Amazon delivery drivers, political canvassers, children chasing balls. The possibilities are endless. But it is not acceptable for your dog to attack someone and to kill them just because they enter your driveway.
“The defendant admits he was the owner of the dog. He admits that the dog was dangerously out of control, and he admits that the dog injured John McColl, and John McColl died as a result of his injuries, but he denies that he is responsible. He says that is not his fault, not at all, not in the slightest. He says, and his case is, that he took reasonable steps to keep the dog under control. That is his case, and that is what you have to decide in this trial.”
Garner denies being the owner of a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control, having pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a dog of a banned breed without an exemption certificate. The trial, before Brian Cummings KC, continues.