\u201cCognitive dissonance\u201d is how Orchard described her initial feeling Thomson had escaped harm, despite what she\u2019d heard over the phone.<\/p>\n
The couple were in a romantic relationship for more than a decade and a half, mostly long-distance after meeting at a mutual friend\u2019s house in Waiuku, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeville was a colourful character who was charismatic and charming, and he also had a very accepting nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 69-year-old allowed his friend Wira and Wira\u2019s more than 20 dogs<\/a> \u2013 including at least five adults known to be aggressive \u2013 to stay in a caravan on his property for months before the fatal attack, Orchard said.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, Neville\u2019s complacency led to … his own demise, leaving his family traumatised and devastated. <\/p>\n \u201cThe dog saw a stranger that morning as Neville had shaved off his beard the previous evening. But this could have been the fate of any unsuspecting visitor.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019d been one herself after Thomson previously asked her to \u201ccome outside and meet Abel\u2019s lovely dogs\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI was attacked by one and noticed the others rushing over to join in. Abel intervened and I ran into the house. I was shocked but unharmed, as the dog got a mouthful of my baggy jeans, not me.\u201d<\/p>\n She was furious after a boarder told her he\u2019d also been attacked by the dogs, and felt both Thomson and Wira<\/a> had \u201cblatant disregard\u201d for the safety of anyone visiting the property \u2013 including children encouraged to feed fish in an outside pond despite the caravan the dogs lived in with Wira not being secure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe caravan door had no working handle, opened outwards and [was] tied with a shoelace, or was propped closed with a stump of wood. It was a disaster waiting to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n But like Wira, Thomson and others menaced or bitten by the dogs<\/a>, she didn\u2019t tell authorities, Orchard said.<\/p>\n She had to take responsibility for being among those who failed to report the danger the dogs posed.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t report it as I wasn\u2019t injured, but I refused to be anywhere near those dogs from then on. Neville and [his boarder] did not report when those dogs attacked<\/a> them.<\/p>\n \u201cLater it became apparent there were more victims, all friends of Abel\u2019s. None of them reported it. Abel himself suffered a serious attack requiring hospital treatment. He certainly didn\u2019t report it. Did the hospital staff report it? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Evidence heard in court during Wira\u2019s trial also revealed the dogs, which he kept confined in a caravan and sometimes unfed for days, had also mauled the ears off a neighbour\u2019s pig.<\/p>\n Orchard said she\u2019d since read there\u2019d been a 40% increase in dog incidents<\/a> reported to ACC since 2015, and that Dog Safe Workplace director Jo Clough this year said fewer than 20% of dog bites are reported.<\/p>\n She would never again fail to report an instance of dangerous dogs, and she encouraged others to take the same approach. <\/p>\nNeville Thomson was known as an animal lover who had two dogs of his own. <\/p>\n
Shirley Orchard and Neville Thomson were in a mostly long-distance romantic relationship for 17 years.<\/p>\n