A man with Down’s syndrome was mauled to death by his niece’s British Bulldogs in a horror attack at home, an inquest heard.
William John Jones, 68, was living with his niece and carer Gwenfair Benjamin, 51, along with her three pedigree dogs.
But Mr Jones was left home alone with the animals before suffering 38 horrific injuries – and died from a fatal leg wound.
An inquest heard Mr Jones and his niece were ‘like brother and sister’ and shared the home in the quiet country town for two years.
Miss Benjamin said she left the house to visit her partner while leaving her two younger pets locked outside in Lampeter, West Wales.
The inquest heard the animals were let into the house before launching the attack on Mr Jones in January 2022.
Miss Benjamin told the hearing ‘the only thing’ she could think was that her uncle went to get ice cream in the freezer out the back.
The inquest heard she returned home four hours later to discover her Mr Jones lying on the living room floor.
William John Jones, 68, was mauled to death by his niece’s British Bulldogs in a horror attack at home, an inquest heard
He had been left home alone with the animals before suffering 38 horrific injuries – and died from a fatal leg wound
His niece and carer Gwenfair Benjamin, 51, was like his ‘sister’ and lived with Mr Jones in a quiet country town in Lampeter, West Wales, for two years
Dyfed-Powys Police rushed to the property just after 5pm but Mr Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.
Miss Benjamin said her uncle would ‘make a fuss of the dogs’ and would get them ‘overexcited’.
She said: ‘He’d tell them to stop in his own way but he couldn’t command in the way I could command because of his speech defect.’
She added: ‘We’ve been together since I was born. We’ve been like brother and sister all the way through. I would never have wanted this to happen in a million years.’
A post mortem found Mr Jones suffered 38 injuries inflicted by the dogs. His cause of death was haemorrhage associated with leg injuries inflicted by dogs in a man with coronary artery atherosclerosis.
Coroner Peter Brunton recorded a conclusion of death as an accident at the inquest in Aberystwyth.
He said ‘it was clear’ Mr Jones knew he was not supposed to let the dogs in when Miss Benjamin was out.
Mr Brunton said: ‘Nevertheless, on this occasion, that’s what he did. There is no explanation why dogs behaved as they did.
‘Mr Jones was familiar with the dogs as they were with him, they had never misbehaved before.’