The canine is barely a yr old – barely greater than a puppy – but his muscled head is already twice the scale of his feminine proprietor’s. Though his outsized jaws are clamped as he naps in her arms, their latent menace is unmistakable.
Nuzzling collectively, tender cheek by chestnut brown jowl, that is the primary {photograph} of canine walker Natasha Johnston with Stan – the humungous bull terrier that savaged her to death in January, after turning on her as she exercised him within the Surrey countryside with seven different pets below her care.
The assault was so spontaneous and extreme that it shocked the nation and introduced requires so-called ‘satan dogs’ to be banned by legislation.
Until now it has been reported that Stan was an XL bully, a harmful and comparatively new breed genetically programmed to be super-strong and aggressive, and, certainly, Natasha’s mates say she all the time offered him as such.
In one in every of many twists to this harrowing incident, nonetheless, veterinary surgeon Dr Alison Robson, an knowledgeable court docket witness referred to as in to analyze the reason for Natasha’s demise, says Stan was a pit bull – one in every of 4 breeds which might be already unlawful in Britain.
As such, 28-year-old Natasha ought by no means to have taken him out on that fateful day. That she allowed Stan to mingle with seven different dogs on the walk and let him off the lead unmuzzled in a public place – and a good friend tells me he had already bitten her twice within the days earlier than the deadly assault – was, says Dr Robson, a ‘recipe for catastrophe’.
Eight months on, the inquest into Natasha’s demise has but to be concluded. We nonetheless do not know precisely why Stan set about her.
However, with the variety of deadly or near-fatal canine assaults at disaster level (it emerged on Thursday that yet one more man had been killed in Staffordshire) and the Home Secretary urgent for XL bullies to be added to the banned record, I’ve uncovered the total story.
It begins, sarcastically, with an act of kindness. For on November 27, final yr, 4 days earlier than our unique photograph was taken, Natasha had rescued Stan from allegedly neglectful homeowners who deliberate to have him destroyed – as a result of he had bitten one in every of their kids.
When Natasha despatched the image to a good friend, her affection for her youthful new companion was evident. ‘Back to the couch! I used to be ordered again to mattress for some time!’ her accompanying message learn as she cuddled as much as him in her fluffy onesie.
‘Natasha was certain she may change Stan’s temperament,’ says her good friend, Delia Lewis, 38, whose personal canine, Shiva, a huge leonberger, was among the many eight-strong pack that January day, and was at first assumed to have carried out the assault, by dint of her measurement and her misbehaviour six years in the past in a BBC2 sequence about puppies.
‘She felt Stan hadn’t been skilled and with the right care and affection he’d be tremendous. Her boyfriend mentioned it wasn’t a good suggestion and, having seen how troublesome Stan might be, my response was, ‘Are you certain?’ But she cherished dogs with a ardour and she or he was nonetheless grieving for her black staffy, Missy, who had just lately died, so she did not take our recommendation.’
It rapidly grew to become clear – to her mates, at the least – that she had made a catastrophic mistake. The pit bull, who already weighed six-and-a-half stone, had a flashpoint mood and bit her calf and arm.
A second assault, inflicting a wound that wanted to be bandaged, occurred on January 10.
Given his unpredictability, Dr Robson informed me this week, it was ‘silly’ to train him with different dogs. ‘He must have been rehabilitated on a one-to-one foundation,’ she mentioned.
Yet two days later Natasha took him, with the seven others, for an hour’s romp at one in every of her favorite haunts, Gravelly Hill – a secluded wooden close to Caterham, Surrey.
On that wet afternoon, Stan abruptly snapped once more, exhibiting no mercy for the lady who had given him a loving new home.
The wounds he inflicted had been so intensive that many particulars have been redacted from the 18 witness statements gathered by Surrey Police, which I’ve seen.
However, when Dr Robson examined her physique she discovered quite a few deep bites to the neck, cranium, shoulders and proper wrist. Though an area walker tried CPR, it was futile.
Since Stan’s canine enamel pierced her jugular, the vet tells me, she would in all probability have died inside a minute. About six weeks after this well-meaning girl saved his life, he had had killed her.
Meanwhile, homeowners of the opposite dogs she was walking that day had been plunged right into a distressing and protracted ordeal.
When police arrived on the scene it appeared instantly clear, from the blood dripping from his mouth, that Stan had mauled Natasha. Indeed, the panting offender nonetheless loomed beside her physique.
Because nobody had witnessed the deadly assault, nonetheless, officers could not make certain whether or not any of the opposite dogs – now wandering unfastened within the woods – had joined within the fray.
Therefore, after rounding them up, with a lasso-like ‘catch pole’ that looped round their necks, they had been all handled as ‘suspects’.
On Dr Robson’s suggestion Stan was destroyed. Whisked away to kennels, the situation of which was stored secret from the homeowners, the others had been held for seven lengthy months whereas the investigation was carried out.
Two of the dogs, belonging to a widely known TV journalist, stay ‘in custody’.
‘Our dogs had been actually on demise row,’ says Ms Lewis, knowledgeable clairvoyant, who was reunited with Shiva after a listening to to find out the circumstances for his or her launch at Guildford Magistrates’ Court on July 27. ‘The police mentioned if there was any indication they’d bitten Natasha, even when the chunk wasn’t deadly, they’d be put down.
‘I knew Shiva would by no means have harm Natasha. She had identified her since she was a puppy, and anyway she all the time runs away from battle. She wasn’t anyplace close to the physique when the police arrived.
‘Still, they made us really feel our dogs had been homicide suspects and would not even allow us to go to them, I assume in case we tried to free them. It has been an absolute nightmare. Even people accused of homicide are permitted to have guests.’
Natasha’s canine walking profession started in her early 20s and she or he cherished it. She was at her happiest amongst dogs and generally appeared to desire their firm to that of her mates.
Ms Lewis says she acquired Stan from a neighbouring household and described him as an XL bully. Perhaps that’s how he was offered to her.
While there isn’t any suggestion that he was handled with cruelty by his first homeowners, Natasha informed her he’d been cooped up for lengthy intervals and below stimulated.
Believing firmly {that a} canine’s character is formed by nurture reasonably than nature, she vowed to vary him. But Ms Lewis believes he was already ‘a misplaced trigger’. Natasha was late beginning her afternoon spherical on January 12.
Though very match from her lengthy nation treks, she suffered from fibromyalgia, a situation that may trigger excruciating ache all through the physique and she or he hadn’t been capable of sleep the earlier night time. It was previous 1pm when, aware of the inclement climate forecast, she donned her overcoat and woolly hat, packed some canine treats, poo luggage and water bottles into her bag and set out from her terraced home in Croydon in her battered Land Rover.
The dogs on her every day spherical had been as eclectic as their homeowners. By far the largest was Shiva, Ms Lewis’s eye-catching, fawn and black leonberger, who weighed almost 10st.
Then there was Alfie, a labrador belonging to a middle-class couple from Godstone, Surrey; Nero and Rufus, two dachshunds – one with a pink coat, the opposite black and tan – owned by a Croydon firm director and his spouse; and the TV newsman’s pets, Cookie, a yellow labradoodle, and Shadow, a black and white poodle cross.
Making up the eight had been Stan and Natasha’s different canine, Benji, a mild cream labradoodle.
Ms Lewis says she was aghast to be taught, after the assault, that Natasha had picked up so many dogs, for she often walked not more than 5 or 6 at a time – and, as Stan had bitten her two days prior, she would have anticipated him to be exercised individually.
‘Without wishing to be unkind, it was a gross error of judgment,’ says Ms Lewis.
As Natasha charged every proprietor as much as £20 for an hour-long walk, web trolls cruelly advised after her demise that she had paid the worth for greed. Ms Lewis, who has additionally been focused, is disgusted by these smears. Natasha all the time put the dogs’ pursuits first, and did not prefer to deny them their every day run, she says.
Perhaps so, but as Dr Robson makes clear in her witness assertion, her rashness was simple. The vet says she was 5ft 6in and weighed 12st 3lbs, but the mixed weight of the pack she took into the woods was thrice heavier than her. Dr Robson wrote: ‘While I recognize not the entire dogs had been on a lead on the similar time, all of those dogs needed to be below management always.’
For somebody of Natasha’s measurement to count on to handle them ‘even for a brief time frame’ was, she concluded, ‘silly and irresponsible’.
Ms Lewis concurs, envisaging the 101 Dalmatians-like chaos that would overwhelm even an skilled canine walker, if eight dogs bounded off in numerous instructions or picked a struggle with a passing canine, as occurred on this case.
The altercation believed to have lit Stan’s tinderbox fuse got here someday after 2pm, when he encountered Bertie, a Norfolk terrier scampering alongside a path on Gravelly Hill together with his proprietor Samantha Ogden and her good friend Julie Willimont, who lives close by.
The very first thing Ms Willimont seen about Natasha, her assertion says, was her ‘unusual colored’ bluish hair. Surrounded by her unwieldy posse – some on leads, others roving free – she additionally appeared ‘a bit unusual… distracted’.
Ms Ogden recalled how ‘a long-legged brown staffy form of canine’ – clearly the unleashed Stan – ‘got here bounding as much as Bertie, whereupon they began to growl at one another’. When she protectively gathered up her Norfolk terrier, Stan started circling then bit her left buttock inflicting a ‘searing ache’.
Now Natasha was shouting and screaming at him to return again to her, however the pit bull was ‘growling and barking, thrashing [his] head’.
‘I want you had informed me your canine was vicious, then I might have put this one on a lead,’ Ms Ogden recollects Natasha saying as she wrestled with Stan. Shocked, the 2 girls beat a retreat.
The subsequent sighting of Natasha and the dogs got here round quarter-hour later. Cantering alongside the muddy bridal path, horse-riders Michelle Clarke and Susan Dove noticed her sitting on the bottom surrounded by the dogs.
By Ms Dove’s recollection, ‘4 of them had a agency grip of her with their mouth [sic]. They had been round her arms, pulling her arms and jacket. I might describe it as a frenzy. The dogs had seen pink and there was no stopping them’.
The riders bear in mind how Natasha, whose toes had been tangled within the leads, screamed at them: ‘Go again! Go again!’ Then two of the dogs ran in direction of them, ‘spooking’ their horses and Ms Dove was unseated. They managed to flee the scene and Ms Clarke referred to as the police. Officers had been then despatched to analyze the unfolding incident.
The brave native man who tried to cease Natasha’s life ebbing away was Ben Kershaw, a young civil servant, who was out walking on the hill together with his mom.
Told by police {that a} hunt was underway for a lacking girl and a few dogs, he joined the search and – by following the barking sounds – discovered her mendacity on the backside of a slope.
From skid-marks within the grass, it appeared that she had both slipped or been dragged down. Beside her, he noticed ‘a big, well-built canine’ with blood smeared on its snout and jaw.
As he approached Natasha, the canine grew to become ‘agitated’, however he managed to achieve her and tried CPR in useless.
In gathering darkness and driving rain, the operation to seize the dogs was stuffed with pressure.
One sodden officer describes feeling ‘extremely weak… alone with a number of insecure dogs who’ve probably mauled somebody to demise. I used to be not carrying a Taser and will one in every of these dogs assault me there can be little or no I may do about it,’ he later attested.
Though firearms officers had been dispatched, he did not know the way lengthy it would take for them to reach. Thankfully, weapons weren’t wanted. Where light persuasion did not work, the catch poles did their job.
When Alfie the labrador was caught, he was ‘pleasant, moist and soiled’, one officer mentioned. However, he additionally had blood in his face. The two dachshunds had been ‘timid and yappy’ however not aggressive.
Tethering Cookie and Shadow additionally posed few issues, although Natasha’s labradoodle was ‘very skittish and tough to get close to to’. Shiva, whom Ms Lewis describes as ‘an enormous, fluffy marshmallow’ (an apt description, from my encounter together with her this week) stood calmly away from the fray with no blood on her. Given her measurement, nonetheless, 4 canine handlers had been deployed to lasso her.
As for Stan, when the noose was looped over his enormous head he spun crazily round, tightening it to the purpose the place he garrotted himself and misplaced consciousness.
After inspecting Natasha’s physique, she visited the holding kennels and measured the size of every canine’s canine enamel and the space between their higher and decrease units, hoping to match the scale of their bites in opposition to that of the injuries.
However, as she informed me yesterday, there have been so many overlaying bites that it was not possible to show which canine, or dogs, had inflicted them. The failure to take DNA samples from Natasha throughout the publish mortem was an additional hindrance.
She subsequently relied on the witness statements and her expertise of pit bull assaults (a few of which she gained by treating animals wounded in unlawful canine fights) to find out that Stan had almost actually killed Natasha. However, as she could not inform whether or not any of the opposite dogs had taken half, and if that’s the case how they been concerned, they had been all ‘tainted’.
So, she beneficial that they need to solely be launched below tight controls, together with obligatory muzzling and being tethered in public.
When she was inspecting the dogs, they had been all passive. However, the kennel supervisor confirmed her a heavy plastic shovel used to wash Stan’s cage. In mood, he had bitten clear by way of it.
Under the usual scale devised by main animal behaviourist Dr Ian Dunbar, the severity of canine bites has six ranges. Those inflicted on Natasha had been on the uppermost finish of the dimensions.
Dr Robson has an knowledgeable thought of how the assault unfolded. After being chastised by Natasha for snarling on the Norfolk terrier, she surmises, the pit bull may need harboured resentment in direction of her and waited for an opportune second to precise revenge.
And having attacked her twice beforehand inflicting restricted harm, this time his modus operandi would have been more practical.
Does a canine actually possess the brainpower to scheme in that means? ‘Dogs can bide their time and wait till you might be off guard to retaliate,’ she says. ‘In human phrases, it is, ‘Just you wait. I’ll get my very own again.’
Natasha’s cries would solely have fuelled the canine’s frenzy and as she fell or slipped down the financial institution with the pack baying excitedly and the leads twisted round her toes, there would have been no escape. ‘It sounds easy, however that is all it takes,’ says Dr Robson.
Once the primary chunk had been landed, different dogs may change into concerned, deliberately or in any other case. They generally regard a inclined individual as ‘a big toy’, enjoying tug-of-war with their limbs, which might clarify quite a few accidents round Natasha’s wrist and arm.
That was why (excluding the 2 dachshunds, who had completed nothing to recommend they had been a hazard and had been first to be launched) she had beneficial that the magistrates impose strict blanket controls.
When the case got here to court docket in July, nonetheless, some homeowners challenged her judgment, amongst them the TV journalist, whose dogs Cookie and Shadow are mentioned to stay in custody pending an attraction.
Though Shiva was mentioned to have jumped up at a passer-by shortly earlier than the assault on Natasha, Ms Lewis’s lawyer argued efficiently that she did not have to be muzzled.
The following day, the clairvoyant collected her overgrown ‘child’ from a police station.
After a six-month separation the leonberger appeared momentarily confused. Mysteriously, her chest had been shaved, and she or he had misplaced almost 2st. Soon, although, she bounded into her proprietor’s arms, to be taken home for her favorite meal: rooster and carrots topped off with a boiled egg.
It was a uncommon second of pleasure in an in any other case unrelentingly grim story. A narrative which those that oppose Suella Braverman’s plans for a ban on probably the most prolific assault canine, the XL bully, would do properly to heed.
They can be suggested to have one other take a look at that {photograph} of Natasha and Stan cosying up cheek to cheek, too.
For when a mollycoddled mutt can swiftly flip right into a monster – savaging the one human who has proven him affection – absolutely each one in every of these deadly breeds have to be expunged from our streets.
