Jack Biscoe came home on Friday night and found his 19-year-old daughter Jamie-Lea lying still on the ground at their home in Leaden Roding, Essex. He saw a visible bite wound to her neck and called emergency services at 10.45pm.
During the same incident, the family’s female blue-merle lurcher dog-cross, Shy, attacked Biscoe as he tried to revive Jamie-Lea, biting off part of his ear and leaving wounds in his arm. Despite life-saving efforts from her father and paramedics, Jamie-Lea was pronounced dead at the scene.
Biscoe later asked police to euthanise Shy as soon as possible. He said, “please just put her down,” and added, “I don’t want to see her ever again… I just don’t think that dog should live anymore.” Police are understood to be carrying out tests to determine the dog’s precise breed and a forensic examination to prove she carried out the fatal attack.
He was arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog who was dangerously out of control and causing injury resulting in death, then released on bail on Saturday evening. Biscoe said Shy had two 18-month-old puppies, Bella and Mouse, and insisted the dog had always been loving, with no history of biting or aggressive behaviour. He said he bought Shy when she was seven weeks old and added: “My daughter was not killed by an XL Bully, she was killed by a genuine family dog.”
The case now turns on what the tests show about Shy and whether investigators can match her to the fatal injuries. For Biscoe, the question is simpler and darker: he says the dog he raised from a puppy killed his daughter, and he does not want her to live.
