Pack that mauled Morden widow 'tossed cat in the air... then the pack mentality set in'

 
1/2
Josh Loeb2 November 2012
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

The neighbour of a pensioner who died after being attacked by her daughter’s five dogs told today of how the animals had killed a family cat just months earlier.

The animals owned by widow Gloria Knowles's daughter had been playing with the cat but had developed a 'pack mentality' and killed the pet.

Mrs Knowles, 71, had been heard screaming for help but her pleas were initially ignored by people nearby who assumed they were children playing,

She ran into trouble after going to feed the five dogs in the back garden of her daughter Beverley’s home next door to hers in Morden, just before 6.30pm on Tuesday.

Neighbours heard hear scream for help and the emergency services were called to the scene but were unable to save her after she suffered multiple injuries. She also suffered a heart attack and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

Today her next-door neighbour Kevin Hamilton, 55, an accountant, told of an earlier attack involving all five dogs - two Bordeaux bulldogs, two American bulldogs and a mongrel - on one of the Knowles family's cats. All the dogs were seized by police.

He said: “They have cats as well because they are animal lovers. About two months ago they had this white cat which died.

"The cat used to sleep with the dogs and one of these dogs started to playfully toss it in the air. They have a pack mentality so the others started doing it too.

“It survived initially and they wrapped it in a blanket but it later passed away from shock.

“They are not the sort of dogs you would want to mess with.”

Great-grandmother Mrs Knowles lived with her granddaughter, Jasmine-Jade, 23, her granddaughter’s boyfriend and their baby.

Mr Hamilton said he had harboured doubts about the dogs prior to the attack the cat and had warned the family to be careful after the baby’s birth.

He said: “When the baby was born I did talk to them and said you don’t get a second chance.

"If one of the dogs grabs the baby, perhaps if a wasp might sting it on the nose and it goes into one of its moods and it could go for the baby. I told them they should be careful.”

Referring to Tuesday’s incident, he said he initially thought when he heard Mrs Knowles’s screams that it was children playing and did not realise how serious the situation was.

He said had he realised, he would have tried to help.

Last night family members were gathered in Mrs Knowles’s two-storey house. Both houses were cordoned off by police, who were seen gathering evidence from the house where the attack took place.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out on her body at St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, today to establish how she died.

Scotland Yard said none of the seized animal are banned breeds and that no arrests have been made in connection with the tragedy.

A force spokesman said: "Police were called at around 6.25pm on Tuesday to reports of a 71-year-old woman found deceased at a residential address in Morden."

He confirmed an investigation was under way to establish the cause of death and said the woman had sustained "a number of injuries".

A London Ambulance Service spokesman added: "We were called at 6.12pm to an address in Morden to a patient in cardiac arrest. Sadly, the patient was dead at the scene."

There was a police presence at the property last night while two adjoining semi-detached houses remained cordoned off.

Family members were too distressed to speak.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in