Ellie Lawrenson: Gran took drugs on day 5-yr-old died

Sep 4 2007

A WOMAN charged over the death of her granddaughter took drugs and alcohol the day the five-year-old was mauled by a family pet, a court heard yesterday.

Grandmother Jacqueline Simpson, 45, also flouted a family rule by allowing the powerfully-built pit bull ter- rier into the house, it was claimed.

Ellie Lawrenson was killed in the early hours of New Year’s Day when the dog, Reuben, locked its jaws around her throat and shook her around Simpson’s living room. She had 72 injuries.

Yesterday, Neil Flewitt QC told Liv- erpool Crown Court Simpson’s judgment may have been impaired by smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol.

He said: “It was the view of the forensic scientist who carried out the analysis that ‘the oncurrent presence of these drugs has the poten- tial to have affected her actions at the time of the incident’, although he was unable to say to what extent she may have been affected.”

Ellie, half the weight of Reuben at 17kg or 2st 9lbs, was dead when para- medics arrived. She had been staying with her grandmoth- er to see in the New Year.

Simpson, who witnessed the attack and was injured during it, knew of two prev- ious attacks on her daughter and a neighbour and was sup- posed to keep the dog outside, the prosecution alleged.

Mr Flewitt said on May 29 last year Reuben, who belonged to Simpson’s son Kiel, 24, attacked a neighbour walking his Jack Russell.

Mr Flewitt said the neigh- bour fought off Reuben with his walking stick before it picked up the Jack Russell.

On November 21, 2006, six weeks before Ellie was killed, Reuben attacked Simpson’s daughter, Kelsey.

Mr Flewitt said: “According to Kelsey Simpson, she saw something in Reuben’s eyes that she had never seen before. They were bulging, red and horrible.”

He added: “Reuben tried to grab hold of Kelsey Simpson’s top with his teeth.

“He then sank his teeth into Kelsey Simpson’s right leg just above the knee and tried to shake her.”

The jury of seven men and five women heard Reuben was no longer seen as a pet and was always locked out- side when Ellie was present.

Mr Flewitt said: “There is no doubt that the defendant was aware of, and agreed to and generally complied with these arrangements, so as to ensure there was no contact between Reuben and either Kelsey Simpson or Ellie.”

But minutes before the fatal attack, which Simpson told police might have been spark- ed by a firework, she took pity on Reuben, who was “crying and whimpering”.

In interview, the defendant admitted she should have kept the dog outside. She told officers: “I shouldn’t have let him in, should I?”

Simpson told police: “He looked scared. I don’t know, I have asked myself a million, million times why did I do it?

“He just didn’t look like he normally looked, he just looked scared.

“I let him in and he was all right, when he came in he was just wagging his tail, running round your legs like he used to.”

But that quickly changed, Simpson told officers, when the dog attacked Ellie.

“I was fighting with it, I was trying to get it off her.

“It put her down, it just started running round bark- ing and just barking.

“I just tried to get it out with some biscuits, anything, because I couldn’t grab it, there was blood everywhere, it was just barking.”

Mr Flewitt added: “She knew that Reuben had become dangerous and she knew that precautions had been put in place to ensure he did not come into contact with Ellie.

“Yet, for no good reason, she allowed Reuben to have access to Ellie in circumstances that undoubtedly led directly to her death.”

Police were called to the house on Knowles House Ave- nue, St Helens, and shot the dog dead after two handlers agreed they could not deal with him. The court heard that Reuben used to exercise by bouncing on a trampoline with a piece of wood in his mouth. A police expert said he was the finest, strongest pit bull he had ever seen. Simpson denies manslaughter by gross negli- gence. The trial resumes today.