Parents jailed after boy, 3, “ripped to pieces” in dog attack

Toddler Daniel Twigg died after being ‘ripped to pieces’ after entering a pen with two dogs each weighing around 50kg in 2022, for which the parents have now been jailed under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991

The parents of a three-year-old boy who was mauled to death by two large dogs have been jailed. Daniel Twigg was brutally attacked by two 50kg Mastiff-type dogs and died from devastating injuries including bites to the neck.

The tragic youngster had let himself into a fenced yard at Carr Farm, Rochdale, in May 2022. His parents Joanne Bedford, 37, and Mark Twigg, 43, were cleared of Daniel’s gross negligence manslaughter in July.

But they were found guilty of of being a person in charge of a dangerous dog which caused injury under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, which prohibits people from keeping dogs bred for fighting and types which present a serious danger to the public.

At Manchester Crown Court on Friday, Bedford was jailed for three years and six months and Twigg was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail. Both were given a 15-year ban from owning dogs.

The two dogs that attacked Daniel were used as guard dogs and each weighed around 110 lbs (50kg). Despite the RSPCA telling the couple they were a danger, the pair allowed little Daniel to enter the pen “alone and unsupervised”, the court heard.

Emergency services were called to the farm at around 1.10pm on Sunday, May 15, 2022. The family had moved to the farm two months earlier to look after the farm and its 11 dogs. The dog breeds included a Cane Corso, American Bulldog, German Shepherd, Tibetan Mastiff and a Boerboel, the Sun reports.

The child suffered severe head and neck injuries before going into cardiac arrest. His mother told a 999 operator that her three-year-old son had been “ripped to pieces”.

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Kerr said: “No sentence in a case such as this can undo the damage done, nor assuage the grief of the bereaved. You have both lost your beloved son. The wrongdoing that led to Daniel’s death must be punished, and it is my mournful duty to see it done.”

Manchester Crown Court was told the pair had a “long association” with the farm where Twigg worked as an “odd job man”. After the farm’s owner Matthew Brown was recalled to prison, Twigg, Bedford and Daniel moved in so they could tend to the animals.

Detective Sergeant Mark Evans, from GMP’s Major Incident Team, said: “This was a deeply tragic and traumatic incident that has left a permanent mark on everyone involved from Daniel’s family and neighbours to the officers and medical professionals who responded that day.

“Daniel was a bright, curious little boy who had grown up around dogs, but as a toddler, he couldn’t understand the risks they could pose.”

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