Ellie dog death: uncle jailed

Last Modified: 16 May 2007
Source: ITN

The uncle of a five-year-old girl who was killed by a pit bull terrier has been jailed for eight weeks for owning the illegal dog.

Kiel Simpson, 24, pleaded guilty to owning a dog banned under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act at a previous hearing at Liverpool Magistrates' Court.

Ellie Lawrenson was mauled to death by the one-year-old American pit bull terrier while at her grandmother's house in St Helens, Merseyside, in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Simpson showed no emotion as the sentence was passed. He was led into the cells handcuffed to a guard.

District Judge Alan Jones told Simpson he did not accept the mitigating argument that he had been given official advice that he could keep the dog or that he had instructed his family to leave the animal outside.

"I don't accept that a police officer or any person giving advice would have said it was enough to keep the dog muzzled and on a lead in public if you properly told them what type of dog it was," he said.

"Any court will have experience of dogs like these being used in connection with criminal offences such as drugs trafficking.

"You must have known this as well, since you have a serious conviction for drugs trafficking. Of all people, you in particular should not have had this dog.

"This is a dog of a type nobody has been allowed to possess for the last 15 years, and for good reason. They are capable of inflicting serious injuries to any able-bodied person.

"That a young child suffered such a tragic attack was something which was foreseeable, particularly because the dog was especially fit and had already behaved aggressively to another member of the family.

"It is not enough to absolve you of responsibility that you left the dog with instructions that it should not be left inside the house."

Simpson's mother, 46-year-old Jacqueline Simpson, has been charged with Ellie's manslaughter. A trial will take place later this year.

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