Police failings led to dog’s fatal attack on grandmother
A GRANDMOTHER who was mauled to death by a police dog died after a catalogue of failures by the force, an inquest jury has ruled.
Irene Collins, 73, was attacked in her kitchen by Dano, a seven-stone German shepherd which had been deployed to search her garden for a suspected drug dealer.
She died days after suffering bites to her arm, leg and breast, and a broken arm at her Middlesbrough home in July 2014. The inquest at Teesside magistrates’ court concluded yesterday that she died from natural causes “contributed to by the consequences of the dog bites while the dog was out of control”.
Mrs Collins needed an operation and made an initial good recovery, despite being terminally-ill with lung cancer, but then developed pneumonia in hospital and died four days later.
The jury yesterday criticised the Thames Valley and Hampshire forces, which sold the dog to Cleveland Police for £500 without fully disclosing that Dano had already bitten 10 people.
The jury also found that Mrs Collins was unaware a dog was to be used in the search, and that officers did not make sure her back door was firmly closed. Following the hearing, her son Eric Collins told reporters: “I am very angry with the police. This has been a disgrace on their part.”
Cleveland Police said since the attack it now asked for full details of an animal’s past. Dano was destroyed after the incident.