Grandmother took drugs before pit bull mauled child

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 pit bull terrier 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 Liverpool 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 concurrent presence of these drugs has the potential 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 — twice as light as Reuben at only 17kg or 2st 9lb — was dead at the scene when paramedics arrived.

She had been staying with her grandmother to see in the New Year. Simpson, who witnessed the attack and was injured during it, knew about two previous attacks on her daughter and a neighbour and was supposed to keep the dog outside, prosecution alleged.

The jury of seven men and five women heard that Reuben was no longer viewed as a pet after that and was always locked outside 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 that there was no contact between Reuben and either Kelsey Simpson or Ellie.” However, minutes before the fatal attack, which Simpson told police might have been sparked by a firework, she took pity on Reuben, “crying and whimpering” outside and let him in.

She denies manslaughter by gross negligence. Her son Kiel admitted owning a dangerous dog this year.

The trial was adjourned to today.