A pensioner accused of moving Bernese mountain dogs after her landlord was found dead with more than 1,000 bite and claw wounds has told a court she acted to deter burglars. June Miles, 78, denies perverting the course of justice by moving two of her five Bernese mountain dogs, including one named Nigel with a blood-stained muzzle, from her landlord Antony Harrington's country home in Meriden, West Midlands.
Mr. Harrington, 77, a retired vet, was discovered naked and severely injured in his garden in November 2023. Miles, who uses a wheeled frame to enter Warwick Crown Court, told jurors she returned to the property on November 25 and found him dead. She initially described the scene in a 999 call, stating he looked "chewed up" and that she suspected "dog bites," though she claimed she did not get close enough to be certain.
Miles testified that she last saw Mr. Harrington alive shortly before 9:30 a.m. on November 25. She reported placing three male Bernese mountain dogs in a secure run and keeping the female and her puppy in a separate room. After running errands, she returned to find the three male dogs loose in the garden. Later that afternoon, she drove with some of the dogs to a farm she had previously lived at, a ten-minute drive away, leaving Nigel and another dog, Otis, behind.
It was upon her return to Mr. Harrington's property about 40 minutes later that she discovered his body and made the emergency call. When questioned about leaving the dogs at the farm, Miles stated, "Yew Tree is not remote but is isolated from the other houses. There had been several break-ins at the houses. Mine hadn't been broken into because of the dogs. They were a deterrent to stop people breaking in." She denied taking them there because she suspected them of attacking Mr. Harrington.
The prosecution suggested that Mr. Harrington's blood found on Nigel's muzzle offered a "clear inference" of the dog's involvement. However, investigators could not definitively rule out the involvement of any of the dogs at the property. Miles has admitted to being the owner of a dog that caused injury while being dangerously out of control, a charge related to an incident the day before Mr. Harrington's death where his daughter was attacked by a dog named Phoebe. The trial is ongoing.