Three-year-old Daniel Twigg was mauled to death by two large Mastiff-type dogs who were being used to guard Carr Farm in Rochdale – he entered a pen ‘unsupervised’
A toddler was savaged to death by two dogs on a farm after his parents left him “unsupervised” despite them being warned the animals were dangerous.
Three-year-old Daniel Twigg died suffered “severe damage” to his neck and died from his injuries after he endured the savage attack. A court heard how he “suffered massive internal and likely plentiful external bleeding.”
Daniel had entered the pen and was pounced on by the two dogs, who weighed around “50kg” each. His parents, Mark Twigg and Joanne Bedford, of Radcliffe, both deny manslaughter and offences under the dangerous dog act. On the first day of their trial, it was said the pair were “well aware” that the animals were aggressive.
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Opening the case at Manchester Crown Court, Mr Elvidge KC, prosecuting, said Daniel died after he was able to enter a pen at Carr Farm in Rochdale on May 15, 2022, where he found “two large Mastiff type dogs called Sid and Tiny.” A swab of DNA taken from Tiny’s muzzle and Sid’s nose matched that of Daniel’s blood. The dogs were being used on the farm for “breeding and to act as guard dogs, ” reports Manchester Evening News.
The jury was told that they would be shown CCTV footage that showed Daniel enter the pen which was “secured with a sliding latch and a Carabiner clip,” rather than a secure lock. Elvidge told the jury that Twigg and Bedford had a “long association” with the farm that belonged to a man called Matthew Brown, who was also Daniel’s godfather.
He told the court that Twigg was an “odd job man” who worked for Mr Brown. The family had been living on the farm after Mr Brown was remanded to prison after his partner had “complained about him”. In an agreement with social services, Mr Brown’s partner, her young son and their puppies left the farm and it was agreed that Mr Twigg and Miss Bedford would live on the premises to tend to the animals by “feeding them, watering them and ensuring that their living conditions were acceptable.”
The court heard how Twigg and Bedford were in charge of caring for eight or nine “untrained guard dogs” that were “difficult to control”. They were of a varying breeds such as a Cane Corso, American Bulldog, German Shepherd, Tibetan Mastiff and a Boerboel.
Mr Elvidge told the court that signs were in place warning visitors about the dogs, one of which told visitors not to exit their vehicle and to “beep their horn or ring” instead, while another said “beware of the dogs they bite”.
The court heard how the dogs, including Tiny and Sid, lived in an “extremely unclean and impoverished environment, with no clean bedding and surrounded by their own faeces”, and that they were “not taken out of this environment for exercise.”
The court also heard that the pair had been warned about the risk of Daniel being bitten by the dogs by an RSPCA inspector but they “brushed off that warning.” The court also heard that there had been previous instances of one of the dogs biting someone in the past.
Another incident included a cyclist injuring themselves after falling off their bike due to the “aggressive behaviour” of two dogs that were roaming free on the farm.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.