Court

DOG MAULING SPECIAL REPORT:
Culprit Was Stab Hero
Weds 4th July 2012 , Yellow Advertiser

THE MAN at the centre of the Southend dog mauling case had come to the attention of the police three months before the incident - as a hero who fought to save the life of a stabbing victim.

Rowan Diedrick, 29, of Avenue Road, London, N14, told the court he had been left traumatised after rushing to the aid of a wounded neighbour in May 2011.

Prosecutor Samantha Lowther confirmed that Diedrick's next door neighbour had been stabbed in the chest and when police arrived at the scene they found him administering CPR to the victim, whose life was saved.

Diedrick became a witness in the case.

He told the court last Tuesday that the incident had left him 'paranoid'.

He said: “It changed my whole life. I had to move house.”

He told police that the culprits in the stabbing had begun sending him threats.

He explained in court: “The people who stabbed the boy wanted me dead. Obviously, I kept him alive and ruined their plans.”

Diedrick left his home and moved in with his mother, who refused to take in his two Rottweilers.

He told the court: “My mum didn't want dogs in her house so I wasn't getting to see my dogs regularly.”

He had taken the dogs on a day out to Southend when one of them attacked the seven-year-old boy.

Diedrick told police after his arrest in February that he had fled the beach on Eastern Esplanade because he felt threatened by a group of six white males who ran into the water behind him.

He said the threats he had received over the stabbing had left him paranoid about knives and told police he had feared the men were carrying weapons.

However, CCTV showed that no males had run into the water after him.

Diedrick insisted in court that he had felt threatened by a group of nearby volleyball players.

He told the court: “If I didn't feel threatened then I wouldn't have left the scene.”

Judge Owen Davies ruled that the story was 'entirely disproved by portions of the CCTV'.

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