Mother strangled by her dogs’ leads
Pets were ‘trying to help’ after she tripped and fell
A DOG lover was accidentally strangled by her two pets’ leads when they tried to help her after she fell during a walk, an inquest heard.
Deborah Roberts, 47, had let her Staffordshire bull terriers, Tyson and Ruby, off t he leash for a run.
An inquest heard the widow probably placed the so- called choke leads, which have a large loop that fits around the dog’s throat, around her own neck to carry them.
But it is thought Mrs Roberts, who suffered from Huntington’s Disease, may have stumbled due to the neurological condition and fallen over, causing the dogs to start tugging on the leads to help her up.
Her son, Robert, told the inquest: ‘They are beautiful dogs. If you met them now they’d just jump up and lick you. All they were doing is trying to help my mum when she fell.’
Mrs Roberts’s niece, who was with her, ran for help. But the mother of four, who had two grandchildren, died at the scene.
The tragedy happened on July 8 while Mrs Roberts was walking on a green close to her home in Wrexham, North Wales, the hearing in Ruthin was told. Nearby workmen were alerted by the niece, who was crying: ‘Help me, someone is choking.’ Stephen Williams said he followed the girl to a nearby field and found Mrs Roberts lying on the ground. He said the two dogs were pulling ‘backwards’, causing her body to move. His colleague said both of the choke loops were around Mrs Roberts’s neck.
Mr Williams said he was ‘worried about what the dogs were going to do,’ but a neighbour arrived who knew the animals and took charge. He called 999 and – despite being worried about performing CPR because of Covid- 19 – started chest compressions.
Police and a paramedic later tried to resuscitate Mrs Roberts but were unsuccessful.
Her cause of death was given as asphyxia due to strangulation.
Another of her sons, Daniel, told the hearing it was possible that she had stumbled over a slight hump and dip at the edge of the f i eld or slipped because the grass was wet.
A third son, Callum, added: ‘We think they [ the dogs] were trying to help my mum and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t moving.’
Recording a conclusion of accidental death, David Pojur, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, said: ‘It seems to have been a combination of the Huntington’s disease and the ground on which she was walking. The dogs were not dangerous – almost family members.’
Mrs Roberts, described as having a ‘heart of gold’, helped out at a playgroup and worked in a warehouse. She had lost her husband Paul, aged 52, three years earlier.
‘They’d just jump up and lick you’