Sean Garner, formerly of Bardsley Avenue, Dallam, appeared for sentencing before Liverpool Crown Court today, Friday.
This was after a jury convicted him of being the owner of the dog that caused injury and death while dangerously out of control.
He was also sentenced for two counts of possessing an XL Bully without an exemption certificate – to which he pleaded guilty.
Today, Garner was told by Judge Brian Cummings that he took utterly inadequate measures to prevent the dog escaping from the patio.
The horrific incident happened on February 24, 2025, on Garner’s driveway on Bardsley Avenue in Dallam with John McColl dying from his horrific injuries one month later.
Toretto, who was ‘guarding Mr McColl like he were its prey’, had to be shot 10 times by armed officers at the scene.
Garner denied the charge, arguing he took steps to prevent his unregistered seven-stone-plus dog from being out of control – including being padlocked in a shed and locking the gate ‘with a bolt’.
Toretto (Image: Cheshire Police)
He claimed Mr McColl had let Toretto out, with prosecutor David Birrell claiming during the trial that this was ‘ludicrous’ and asking him what planet he was on.
Mr Birrell said how Garner is responsible for various reasons – one being that he shouldn’t have had the dog in the first place. XL Bullys are a banned breed and Garner, 31, didn’t have an exemption certificate.
The court was also told how Garner kept the dog when he knew it posed a threat to others and were shown previous text messages about Toretto between the defendant and his family, revealing how it had previously gotten out of places, how it was missing ‘a few nuts and bolts’ and how it had even ‘caught’ his own mother before.
Mr Birrell’s case was that the dog had been kept on the patio, which was covered in faeces, from which it could easily get out.
A police dog expert told the jury how Toretto had not been fed for some time, with a necropsy revealing it had no food in its stomach. Mr Birrell also said the dog was not watered, with there being no access to water on the patio.
And finally, Mr Birrell said Garner is responsible because he separated Toretto from his other female XL Bully Malibu as she was on season. She was kept in the house while he was kept outside. The trial heard how separating dogs like this will become frustrated and aggressive.
It was argued how if both dogs had been registered, they would have been neutered as a legal requirement – meaning they both would have been kept inside – ‘preventing the attack’.
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