Sean Garner was parked beside a branch of Pizza Hut metres away from the scene of the attack when he sent the message, a jury was told
Sean Garner(Image: ALAN DEMPSEY)
A dad “made jokes” in a Facebook voice note while parked beside a branch of Pizza Hut metres away from the scene where his XL bully had killed a pensioner in Warrington, a trial has heard. 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. 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 is currently on trial accused of causing Mr McColl’s death by being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog.
Jurors were yesterday shown further Facebook messages exchanged by Garner in the wake of the incident. Having parked his pickup truck “within walking distance” of his home, next to Pizza Hut on nearby Junction Nine Retail Park, he told his girlfriend Lauren Lawler’s mum at 8.39pm: “Dogs been shot I think. Stopped a lad in the road further down. He’s just showed me a video. Won’t let me ring you for some reason.”
Garner was then said to have sent a series of voice notes to another Facebook contact, known only as Stephanie Louise T, although police were unable to recover the content of these audio files. She replied to such messages at around 8.45pm: “Oh f***inell. Wtf. They won’t arrest Lauren. She’s pregnant. Bet someone’s reported them. Then they’ve tried to attack them. Was they both outside?”
Following another voice note, Stephanie then told Garner: “Horrible b******s la, shooting her. Was they both outside yeah, or in the house?”
After being sent further audio messages shortly before 9pm, she added: “No, I mean when you left the house. Did you leave them inside? Oh f***inell. Both separated outside yeah? I’m so confused. Surely Malibu is still inside. How the f*** can Toretto get to her?”
With Garner having sent her a further voice note at 9.05pm, Stephanie replied: “Hahahaha. Ffs. Literally though.”
David Birrell, prosecuting, said of this exchange: “He said something in his voice note to prompt her to respond, ‘hahahaha’. The defendant knows that there has been a serious incident at his home. He knows that both his dogs have been shot, and he has sent a voice note prompting that response.”
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.
John McColl, 84, died after he was attacked by an XL Bully(Image: Cheshire Police)
“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 thereafter 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, who is represented by Lloyd Morgan, 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.