feeding as a favour for her daughter.
The five animals pounced on Gloria Knowles, 71, after she went into
the garden to give them their evening meal.
The widow was badly injured when the dogs – two 'giant' Bordeaux
French mastiffs, two American bulldogs and a small mongrel – suddenly
turned on her. Neighbours described hearing 'hysterical screaming and
barking' from the garden.
Mrs Knowles lived next door to her daughter, Beverley Mason, with her
granddaughter, who has a baby of her own.
Mrs Mason lives with her husband, Dylan, and her other three children.
The couple own the dogs together.
The family has run Harrington's pie and mash shop in Tooting, South
London, for several generations.
Police and ambulance services were called to the house in Morden, also
in South London, on Tuesday night.
Five dogs were later seized from the semi-detached property, and it
was revealed that Mrs Knowles had had a heart attack as the animals
set on her. Nazir Hussein, a friend and neighbour of Mrs Knowles, was
alerted to the attack when he heard Mrs Mason screaming 'Mum, Mum,
Mum' outside the house.
Mr Hussein, 65, said he had long been afraid of the family's dogs,
describing them as 'vicious'.
'I would see the dogs being walked in the park but I didn't want to
walk near them,' he said.
'They were vicious dogs – you knew by how they pulled on the lead and
you could hear them barking from my house.
'There were so many dogs something like this was bound to happen.'
Another neighbour, Kevin Hamilton, described hearing screams from Mrs
Mason's house at 5:15pm but mistook the noise, thinking it had come
from one of Mrs Knowles's grandchildren.
Mr Hamilton, 65, who lives in the other house next door to Mrs Mason,
described hearing 'hysterical screaming and barking' as he watched
television.
He only became aware of the attack when a police officer told him
about it, explaining that Mrs Knowles was alone in the house when she
went to feed the dogs. He said officers had told him it was Mr Mason
who discovered Mrs Knowles's body.
Mr Hamilton described the two mastiffs as 'real muscle dogs' with
'enormous chests', and said the animals had a 'pack mentality'. He
added: 'If one jumped on you it would certainly knock you over.'
He described Mrs Knowles, a widow, as a 'fit old bird' who talked to
all the neighbours and enjoyed gardening.
She had lived on the street with her husband Victor for 40 years,
until he died five years ago. Neighbours said her daughter and her
family moved into the house next door the year after Mr Knowles's
death.
They explained that there was a gate between the gardens of the two
houses which Mrs Knowles would regularly use, often to feed the
animals.
Scene: Police have cordoned off the Morden home where Mrs Knowles died
last night
Scene: The back garden of Gloria Knowles' daughter Beverley where it
is believed the five dogs attacked her
Tragedy: Dog baskets and food bowls can be seen in the garden at the
scene where Gloria Knowles may have been mauled to death by the
animals
Animals removed: Police have seized the two French Mastiffs, the
American bulldogs and the mongrel pending the post-mortem
Another neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: 'The dogs were
always barking, everyone around here will tell you that.
'They had always had dogs but never any that big. They were not the
sort of dogs I would have around children, let me put it that way.'
ATTACK MIRRORS PREVIOUS VIOLENT DEATHS IN LONDON
Two years ago Barbara Williams, 52, was mauled to death by an eight
stone Neapolitan mastiff in Wallington, south London.
The dog had been kept in a cage seven inches shorter than its body.
Earlier this year its owner Alex Blackburn-Smith, 35, admitted failing
to ensure the dog's welfare and was ordered to do 150 hours' unpaid
work and pay costs of £3,300 at Croydon Magistrates' Court.
In January Leslie Trotman, 83, died after he was mauled by a
'pitbull-type' dog that had broken out of his neighbour's garden in
Brentford, West London.
A Scotland Yard 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 added that 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 said: 'We were called at 6.12pm
to [a house] in Morden to a patient in cardiac arrest. Sadly, the
patient was dead at the scene.'
The family was too upset to talk last night. Mrs Knowles's death
follows a spate of attacks by dangerous breeds.
Earlier this year, Leslie Trotman, 83, died after being mauled by a
'pit bull-type' dog that had escaped from his neighbour's garden in
Brentford, London. And two years ago Barbara Williams, 52, was killed
by an eight-stone Neapolitan mastiff.
Its owner, Alex Blackburn-Smith, 35, admitted failing to ensure the
dog's welfare after it was discovered to have been living in a cage
seven inches shorter than its body.