This is the first picture of an 84-year-old man who died after being savaged in the street by an XL Bully. Pensioner, John McColl, was attacked while walking along Bardsley Avenue in Warrington, Cheshire last month.

But after a month-long fight to recover in hospital the cherished grandad succumbed to his injuries on Sunday (March 30), police said. Sean Garner, 30, of Bardsley Avenue, Warrington was charged with owning a dog dangerously out of control causing serious injury and two counts of possession or custody of a dog to which section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 applied, namely an XL Bully.

The Crown Prosecution Service has been informed of the victims’ death and will now determine if there are any changes to the charges, Cheshire Police said.
John McColl was a great-grandad, and his family thanked emergency services for helped him at the scene

In a statement released by Cheshire Police, Mr McColl's family said: "We are absolutely devastated with what has happened to John. He fought hard for the last five weeks but he decided he could not fight any more, and passed away on Sunday March 30 at 1.40pm surrounded by family.

"Our dad, grandad and great grandad will always be loved by us all and sadly missed by each and every one of us. We would like to thank the emergency services and first-aid responders who helped John at the scene, along with the residents of Dallam who also came to his aid and the staff at Aintree and Whiston hospitals for all that they did for him and us as a family."
Police forensics at the scene of the dog attack (
Image:
Liverpool Echo)

Neighbours had scrambled to help the victim, with one man telling the Liverpool Echo he desperately tried to prize the dog away with a wooden broom. He said: "I was looking through the kitchen window and saw a guy lying on the floor in the driveway over the road. I thought he'd had a heart attack. Then I saw this massive dog.

"I ran over and battered it with my yard brush. I cracked it over the head, but it didn’t work. It wouldn’t get off him. I should have got a knife from the kitchen, really, but I didn't think. I just grabbed the brush."

The neighbour added: "I'm traumatised by what happened. There was blood on my boots and over my brush. It was everywhere." When police arrived on the scene at around 6.40pm, residents on the street were told to stay indoors.
Police forensics at the scene of a dog attack on Bardsley Avenue in Warrington (
Image:
Liverpool Echo)

Cheshire Police said the dog had escaped from a nearby property before dragging John into a garden and attacking him. Officers shot the animal before finding a second suspected XL Bully inside the property which also had to be destroyed, the force said.

Armed police had to fire 19 shots to stop the dogs due to their "sheer size and ferocity", before seizing a third smaller dog.
Police forensics at the scene of a dog attack on Bardsley Avenue in Warrington (
Image:
Liverpool Echo)

Detective Inspector Simon Mills, of the Major Investigation Team at Cheshire Police, said: "This was a tragic incident, and our thoughts are with the family of the victim at this difficult time. The victim has fought so hard since the attack but sadly his injuries were too much, and despite the best efforts of the specialist medical teams who have supported him since the attack, he has now passed away.

“To endure such pain and anguish at the hands of an animal is unimaginable, and I cannot begin to comprehend the distress that his family are currently suffering following such an horrific incident. Nobody should have to go through what they have experienced, and our specialist officers are providing them with the support they need at this truly awful time."