Sean Garner, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after his XL bully Toretto mauled and killed John McColl, 84, in Warrington in February last year.
John McColl was mauled to death by an XL bully(Image: CHESHIRE POLICE/UNPIXS)
The family of a man whose XL bully mauled a pensioner to death abused his loved ones on Facebook while he was fighting for his life in hospital.
John McColl, 84, was attacked by XL bully Toretto in Warrington in February last year. Police had to shoot the animal 10 times to bring it under control.
Sean Garner, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Friday after a jury found him guilty of Mr McColl’s death by being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog. A judge described the pensioner’s suffering as “quite unspeakable” as he survived for five weeks before finally succumbing to his injuries.
Due to the horrifying nature of his injuries, his devastated family were only able to spend their final moments with him behind a screen. His daughter, Joann Percival, described how she still relives the agonising weeks in which his loved ones continued to visit the gravely ill great-grandad, whose “awful” injuries were so extensive they were unable to see his face.
The 57-year-old said: “We went in and we weren’t prepared for what we saw. We didn’t see a lot, because he was behind a screen. It was just awful. You relive that all.”
Mr McColl was barely able to communicate during his time in hospital, only occasionally able to raise his arms as if protecting himself and uttering the word “dog”. But despite the advice of doctors, his granddaughter, Kelly Percival, went behind the surgical screen in order to see his face, Liverpool Echo reports.
The 33-year-old recalled: “He resembled nothing of my granddad. I had never seen anything at all like it. To think that a dog had done that, and that dog was around small babies as well, it’s just frightening.”
Mr McColl even underwent a 17-hour operation in a bid to save his life. At the same time, Garner’s family and friends were said to have taken to social media in order to spin false narratives and blame the victim of the dog’s savage attack. Their claims included that Mr McColl, a retired steel erector originally from Scotland, had entered the garden and let the dog out himself.
His daughter said: “While my dad was fighting for his life, they were abusing us on Facebook and the comments they were coming out with. We were at the hospital with my dad and all they could do was think of lies.”
While Garner claimed at trial he had kept the dog inside a locked shed which he alleged Mr McColl had broken into, Ms Percival believes her dad was doing the “neighbourly thing” in entering the driveway of the owner’s home, intending to knock on their door and inform the family their dog had escaped.
She added: “We went through so many different emotions as a family, anger, hatred. As a family, we know there was no intent there. Nobody would have wanted something like that to happen and I know that. But the fact is that they’ve shown no remorse, no empathy, no apology.
“If it had been my dog that had done that, I would have been absolutely devastated and I don’t know how I would have got over that. We’ve had nothing apart from lies, blame and abuse off them. It’s shocking. Sean Garner knows what happened that night and, unfortunately, he’s going to have to live with that for the rest of his life.”
Cheshire Police’s Detective Inspector Simon Mills meanwhile detailed how some officers who attended the scene on Bardsley Avenue in Warrington required counselling in the aftermath, saying: “In 28 years, these are the worst injuries I’ve sadly seen to anybody.
“I know as an incident, for everybody that attended, and I’m including the neighbours, witnesses, all the attending officers, medical staff, it was just an awful, traumatic incident for everyone involved, right through to surgeons at the hospitals later.”
Det Ins Mills added that he had a “lot of respect” for the dignity shown by Mr McColl’s family throughout the past year and said: “They’ve had to endure comments from posts right from the outset, when Garner was first charged, with people taking the side of the dog owner. They’ve not been able to grieve properly.
“They’ve had to hold their emotions throughout the trial, seeing him lie at court and then his family making posts online that I don’t think are pleasant in any way. They’re just victim blaming. I just hope they can move on from this. They can see Garner and his supporters for what they are. But they shouldn’t have to do that.”
Garner’s partner, Lauren Lawler, took to Facebook to say her life had been “ruined” thanks to the actions of the victim who was mauled and ultimately killed by Toretto. In a Facebook rant she said “(her) dogs would still be alive now” if Mr McColl “didn’t take it upon himself to go into (her) garden”.
Meanwhile during Garner’s trial jurors were shown messages in the wake of the attack, which saw him turn to the “Fambo” group chat for advice. His mum, Maureen McGrain, told him: “Say they’re Lauren’s dogs. She’ll get off with a fine and you’ll go back to jail.” A contact saved in his phone as “R Steph”, his sister, sent further messages saying: “I’d say you’re minding whatever dogs done it for your mate who’s gone Thailand. Don’t know who you would say though.”
Garner’s trial heard that the Crown Prosecution Service had “seriously considered” criminal proceedings against members of the defendant’s family who “encouraged him to lie about the circumstances”, although, ultimately, “a decision was taken not to charge those individuals”.
Sentencing, Judge Brian Cummings KC told Garner: “I am quite sure that you did not take the measures you claimed to have taken. The dog was not kept locked in a shed on the patio. On the contrary, I am quite satisfied that the only obstacle between the dog and the outside world was a side gate which was secured by nothing more than a simple latch.
“That was no sort of barrier for any large dog and was utterly inadequate, more so when you knew that particular animal was unstable, ‘missing a few nuts and bolts’, as you put it. The measures that you took were so minimal as to be meaningless.
“In all the circumstances of the case, it was eminently foreseeable that the dog would escape from its insecure closure and that it would attack someone and seriously injure or kill them. That is why these animals are prohibited.
“I am quite sure that Toretto had, in fact, previously displayed aggressive behaviour, and you knew that. It is absolutely the position that the incident could have been reasonably been foreseen. You took no measures to protect innocent members of the public.”
The judge added: “I cannot accept that you have shown any true remorse. Remorse means being sorry for what you have done, but you have, from the outset, denied any responsibility whatsoever and tried to lie your way out of it. Your expressed concern for Mr McColl and his family is glib and insincere.
“Actions speak louder than words. Your actions involved contesting the incontestable. If there ever was any remorse, it is completely nullified by your offensive lies.”
Garner, who was also sentenced for two counts of owning a fighting dog in advance of the trial, nodded slightly as he learned his sentence but otherwise showed no reaction. Supporters in the public gallery were seen to give him a thumbs up as he was led to the cells.
