The daughter of a pensioner who was killed in a horror dog attack in her back garden has said: “I miss my mum every single day.”
Retired cook Lucille Downer, 85, died after two American bulldogs belonging to a drug dealer got into her property through a fence.
Her daughter Beverley watched in horror as the crazed animals pounced before trying to maul her as she dragged her mum to safety.
Beverley and her two next door neighbours were forced to lock themselves inside the house as the dogs roamed the garden.
Lucille, who had dementia, died from a traumatic injury caused by a dog bite following the attack during the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2021.
The animals belonged to Darren Pritchard, 44, who was operating a cannabis factory next door to Jamaican-born Lucille.
He was jailed for just under five years yesterday after admitting being in charge of two dogs dangerously out of control causing injury resulting in death
Pritchard, of Smethwick, West Mids, also admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply and producing the drug.
Beverley, who has never previously spoken about the attack, told the Mirror: “I miss my mum every single day.
“But every time I think of her, I can just see the image of her lying covered in blood with two dogs at her neck.
“She was a wonderful woman and doesn’t deserve to have died in that way.
“She didn’t stand a chance against those animals, they were terrifying.
“I ran straight to her, but the dogs came for me and the neighbour who was there pulled me back inside.
“My mum had lived on the street for more than 40 years.
“She knew everybody and everyone liked her and looked out for her, especially after she developed dementia.”
One neighbour, who saw the crazed dogs burst through a fence between the two houses, said: “It was like a scene from Tom and Jerry.
“These huge dogs just came rampaging though the wooden fence, burst a hole right through it, and just went straight for Lucille.”
Another neighbour, Rachael Parks, said: “We were out in the garden with family.
“It was during lockdown so people were spending a lot of time in their gardens.
“We were forever shouting across the fence asking the dogs’ owner to keep them quiet, but he had no control over them.
“They had been going crazy all morning, but suddenly we heard this huge crash and then a totally different noise, they were going wild.
“We heard screaming so we ran to the front where our neighbours said they had seen everything through the window.”
One friend ran to fetch Beverley from her home in the next street, while others tried to gain access to the garden.
Beverley rushed through the house and into the garden, but was chased back and forced to wait until police arrived.
Rachel said: “The owner wasn’t in the house at the time, the dogs had been left in the garden.
“I’m a dog owner and I know it’s not the dog, it’s the owner.
“There are too many big, strong dogs who have aggressive tendencies with bad owners.
“The law needs to take into account that not all dog owners are good.
“When Pritchard finally came home, the police told him what had happened, and his face dropped and he went so pale.
“Everyone was out in the street, crying, unable to believe what had happened.”
Today at Wolverhampton Crown Court Darren Pritchard, 44, was jailed for nearly five years for an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
He was give 45 months in prison for being the owner of the dogs dangerously out of control, 12 months to run consecutively for possession with intent to supply cannabis.
Pritchard was also sentenced to another 12 months, to run concurrently, for producing cannabis, totalling four years and nine months.
Judge Michael Chambers KC said Mrs Downer was the victim of a “dreadful and sustained attack”.
He said: “Only a matter of weeks previously, the dogs had escaped into another neighbour’s garden. What occurred was entirely foreseeable. Lucille Downer was an 85-year-old lady who lived a much-respected and long life.
“For anyone to die in such circumstances is truly tragic, but, suffering from dementia, she must have found this most shocking and upsetting.
“She was entitled to feel protected in her own garden, but the dogs forced their way through the fence and mauled her. You left them free to roam.
“No-one was able to get near them until you returned home and intervened. It is a measure of their ferocity and the injuries were dreadful.”
The Mirror is currently campaigning to overhaul the Dangerous Dogs Act as people continue to be killed or seriously injured in vicious dog attacks.
