Mum strangled to death when dog leads wrapped around her neck
Deborah Roberts, 47, was walking her two Staffordshire bull terriers when it is believed she stumbled over.
A mother-of-four was strangled to death by her own dogs after their leads became wrapped around her neck during a morning walk, an inquest heard today.
Deborah Roberts, 47, was walking her two Staffordshire bull terriers when it is believed she stumbled over.
The dogs, Tyson and Ruby, were on two rope leads and it is thought they began pulling on them to get her up.
But Mrs Roberts, a widow who suffered from Huntington’s disease, was strangled to death and found face down on grassland with the dogs next to her.
The inquest heard the warehouse worker was on her regular walk in Garden Village, Wrexham, North Wales, when the ‘tragic’ accident happened.
The coroner was told she usually placed the leads around her neck while the dogs were off the leash.
Tyson and Ruby were ‘loving and caring pets’ and may have been trying to get Mrs Roberts up by pulling on the leads, the inquest also heard.
Her son Robert told the inquest: ‘They are beautiful dogs. If you met them now they’d just jump up and lick you. All they were doing is trying to help my mum when she fell.’
Her other son Callum said his mother had been walking with his young cousin who raised the alarm when the accident happened.
Two workmen then rushed to help her. In a statement, one of them said: ‘I noticed a young girl running towards me crying, saying “can you help me, someone is choking”.’
He said two dogs were pulling ‘backwards’ and the force of the dogs was causing the body to move.
His colleague described how the two dogs were whimpering and he could see Mrs Roberts was unconscious.
Mrs Roberts had been suffering from Huntington’s disease, a degenerative condition that led to her mobility deteriorating.
Assistant coroner David Pojur said she ‘may have stumbled’ but ‘we don’t know’ why she had the leads around her neck.
He recorded a conclusion of accidental death after hearing the cause was asphyxiation caused by strangulation by a lead.
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