Parents cleared of manslaughter after son killed

Daniel Twigg was killed in a dog attack in 2022 on a farm in Rochdale

The parents of a three-year-old boy who was mauled to death by two dogs have been cleared by a jury of gross negligence manslaughter.

Daniel Twigg was attacked after letting himself into a fenced yard where the two dogs - described as large mastiffs - were kept on Carr Farm, Rochdale, on 15 May 2022. He died from injuries, including bites to the neck.

At a trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury found parents, Joanne Bedford and Mark Twigg, not guilty of the more serious charge of manslaughter, but they were each convicted of a lesser charge of being a person in charge of a dangerous dog which caused injury.

The pair are due to be sentenced at Minshull Street Crown Court on 10 October.

During the trial, the court heard officers who were first on the scene had to use riot shields to protect paramedics from the dogs as they tried desperately to save Daniel.

John Elvidge KC, for the prosecution, said Daniel was left unsupervised with the dogs for at least 15 minutes, and that Bedford "failed to give the police any account for leaving Daniel unsupervised for so long".

The court heard Bedford was "hysterical" when emergency services arrived and screaming "my baby, my baby".

In footage from the officer's bodyworn camera, when asked about what happened, Ms Bedford was heard saying: "We were all out in the garden. Daniel went in the yard - and when we heard the dogs we went in there straight away."

Paramedics twice restarted Daniel's heart on the journey to hospital but he was in cardiac arrest by the time they arrived, the court heard.

Doctors terminated their resuscitation efforts about 20 minutes later.