Sean Garner says he was ‘absolutely devastated’ after learning of the attack and told a jury: “I love old people”
Sean Garner(Image: ALAN DEMPSEY)
A dad whose XL bully killed a pensioner says he was “absolutely devastated” after learning of the attack and told a trial “I love old people”. 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, 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.
His evidence to the court continued this afternoon, Thursday. Appearing suited in the witness box, Garner said under questioning from his counsel Lloyd Morgan that Toretto had been “locked in the shed”, which had been “bolted and padlocked” beyond a gate which was “on the latch with a chain”.
Having left the house via the back door and through this gate at around 4pm on the day in question, he added: “I’ve locked it, like I did every single day. I’ve locked it by making sure the latch was shut, grabbed the chain, pulled the chain around the gate and back to itself.”
Later, Garner was contacted by police and informed of a “serious incident” at his home, after which he said he arranged to meet his girlfriend Lauren Lawler at a nearby branch of Pizza Hut in order to give her his mobile phone. He added: “Her phone weren’t working, so she can get back in touch with us and let us know what happened. I didn’t know what had happened. I took Lauren’s phone. Her phone had no SIM card. I went back to the Pizza Hut and connected to Wi-fi.”
Asked why he had not returned to his house, Garner told the court: “The reason I didn’t go back to my address is, I was banned from driving at the time. I was driving my truck, which I have been prosecuted for. I thought they’d arrest me for driving the truck.”
Garner’s sister then messaged him to say: “I’d say you’re minding whatever dog’s done it for your mate who’s gone Thailand. Don’t know who you would say though.”
Asked whether he “knew what happened at this stage”, Garner told the court: “No, we still didn’t know what happened. I knew there’d been an incident. I didn’t know the seriousness of it. I didn’t know a man had been attacked. If I did know that, I would have went home.
“I stopped a lad and said, ‘do you know what’s happened up there?’. He said, ‘I think a dog has been shot’. He showed me a video from a phone out of a window. Alls you heard is two gunshots. You can’t actually see anything. I genuinely didn’t know it was my dog. I didn’t know the whole incident, what had happened.”
Garner was also asked about a series of voice notes which he had sent to his sister that evening, although police were unable to recover the content of these audio files. He said of this: “I don’t have a clue why it’s unavailable. I wish they were able to get them all.”
When shown a message where his sibling had responded “hahahaha, ffs, literally though” to one of his audio messages, Garner said: “I don’t know what that was over. We still, at that time, didn’t know a man had been injured or anything like that.”
Garner recalled that he then drove to his pregnant partner’s mum’s house in Belle Vale, where her step-dad received a call telling him “to go and pick the kids up” after Ms Lawler was arrested at the scene. He added: “I stayed in Lauren’s all night, slept there until the following morning.
“No police come. I didn’t know what had happened. We still didn’t know genuinely what had happened. I went not knowing any of the wiser, sat there all night, slept there, got up in the morning.”
Of the following day, Garner said: “I went and sought legal advice straight away to make arrangements to hand myself in. Lauren hadn’t come home. I didn’t know what had happened.
“That night, there was news reports that started getting put up that night. I finally found out that night, before I went to bed. In the morning, I went to seek legal advice to hand myself in.
“My mind was everywhere. Ive got ADHD, as yous can probably tell. I didn’t know what to think. As soon as I found out a man had been attacked, I was devastated. I spent most of the day getting legal advice.”
Garner then handed himself in at Runcorn Police Station shortly before 1pm on February 26 last year, two days after the dog attack. Asked how he felt after learning of the incident via news reports, he said: “I couldn’t believe it. Absolutely devastated. I’ve looked after old people for years myself. I love old people. I’d never wish this on anybody. I couldn’t put into words what happened. I couldn’t believe it.”
John McColl, 84, died after he was attacked by an XL Bully(Image: Cheshire Police)
David 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.