THE family of a terminally-ill pensioner savaged by a police dog said she repeatedly said the animal had been ‘out of control’.

Irene Collins, 73, who died four days after Cleveland Police dog Dano attacked her in her own home as it searched the garden for a suspected drug dealer, told her family that she stood still to avoid attack when the dog entered her kitchen.

She said she expected the police dog handler to follow but he could not be seen.

Her son Eric Collins told her inquest, at Teesside Coroner’s Court, that he received a phonecall from the police at about 9.30pm on June 16, 2014, and he went straight to his mother’s house where she was being treated by paramedics and screaming out her son’s name.

Later, when Mrs Collins, a retired NHS cleaner, was in a cubicle in Accident and Emergency at the James Cook University Hospital, she described to him the moment she was attacked.

He said: “She said a dog had come into the kitchen.

“She stood still, expecting the dog to stay there until its handler came in but the handler didn’t come in.

“Next she was attacked, pulled down to the ground and banged her head on the kitchen unit. She kept saying numerous times that the dog was out of control.

“She said when the dog had hold of her arm it wouldn’t let her go.”

He said she repeated that the dog had been out of control several times, including in front of investigating officer, now retired Detective Inspector Tony Rock, who said during his evidence he did not remember that.

Mr Collins said: “She just kept saying it, in front of DI Rock as well. Why he can’t remember that I don’t know.”

He also said Mrs Collins had told him it ‘took a while before the handler came into the kitchen’ and it was only when she began screaming that he came in.

The inquest earlier heard from Home Office pathologist Dr Mark Egan, who said Mrs Collins would not have died when she did if it were not for the dog bite.

She was suffering from terminal lung cancer and was just ‘weeks or months’ from death due to the advanced tumour, he said.

He said of the lung cancer: “It was not treatable and would have ultimately brought about her death in any case. She would have died within the next few weeks or months.”

But he said the dog attack, which led to her being in hospital and undergoing surgery, meant she contracted a ‘severe and overwhelming’ lung infection which ultimately led to her death.

“In my opinion the multiple injuries by the dog bites have directly contributed to her death, and the deceased would not have died when she did had it not been for the dog bite,” he said.

The inquest heard on Wednesday that the German Shepherd dog, who was brought to Cleveland from its previous home for Thames Valley and Hampshire police forces, had bitten people on at least ten occasions in its previous posting, including one in the face.

Inspector Anne Reavley, of Nottinghamshire Police, was tasked with investigating the case by the former Independent Police Complaints Commission.

She said footage from the police helicopter showed there was one minute and three seconds between the dog disappearing from sight on camera and PC Baines radioing in saying Mrs Collins had been attacked. But she said the dog was out of sight partly because the helicopter moved – and she would expect PC Baines to prioritise making sure Mrs Collins was safe before using his radio.

She said there was a ‘response of panic’ by all parties involved.

Insp Reavley also suggested that the presence of a plain clothes police officer on the roof of an outbuilding while Dano was making his search of Mrs Collins’ garden may have ‘confused’ the dog.

She said it was potentially the ‘catalyst’ for the dog going into her home.

There has been no explanation of how the dog entered the home. DI Rock suggested the door was stiff and he was unable to close it properly when he later examined the house.

But Mr Collins said in evidence that it was a ‘normal door’, which opened outwards into the garden.

Insp Reavley suggested that anyone waving their arms or shouting could have led the dog to attack, but there was no suggestion Mrs Collins had done this.

She said by the time the dog went back to attack Mrs Collins for the second time it was ‘clearly out of control.

“What happened in that house was not something we could have trained for. It was a series of events which led to a catastrophic outcome,” she said.

The inquest continues.