Angeline Mahal, 50, suffered fatal bite and maul injuries whilst alone with her dogs Bella and SJ at the family home in Cornwall Close.
Her twin sons, 26, returned home at 1pm on May 20 last year to find their mum unresponsive on the floor and the dogs locked in different rooms.
An inquest at East London Coroner’s Court on Thursday, November 13, heard that the dogs were both six or seven years old and had been with the family since they were puppies.
Angeline’s eldest brother, Gurinder, said his sister was an “animal lover” who would rarely stay late at family functions as “she would want to get back to her babies to feed or walk them”.
“Angeline would tell me that both dogs were ok but one [SJ] was a bit feisty with the other one,” Gurinder said.
“We had read an article about the grandmother in Essex being mauled by her XL bullies and we warned her to get rid of the dogs as we did not want the same thing to happen to her and also so that she could have freedom.”
Esther Martin, 68, was killed by two XL bully dogs in Jaywick three months before Angeline’s death.
Gurinder said he could not remember how Angeline responded to his warning but that she clearly did not feel in danger.
Angeline, a beautician, had returned home from a party in an Uber at 10pm on Saturday, May 19.
She was alone with the dogs until her sons came home at 1pm the following day.
In a witness statement to police, Rainveer Mahal said he and his brother found their mum on the floor with bite marks on her arms and legs.
“She was completely unresponsive and I realised she must have been there for a while,” he said.
Emergency services were called to the scene and Angeline was pronounced dead at 1.32pm.
It was later revealed that one of Angeline’s neighbours had made a call to police in the early hours of the morning reporting a disturbance.
Area coroner Nadia Persaud said: “Unfortunately the police were given the wrong location, so a police van did attend but they went to the location they were given and didn’t find anything.”
In police witness statements there was reference made to SJ being “problematic” but Rainveer said the dog had only ever been aggressive to Bella.
Ms Persaud concluded: “On May 20, 2024, Angeline Mahal was found deceased in her home address, she was alone in the house with her two XL bully dogs.
“Paramedics attended and pronounced her life extinct. Police attended, thoroughly investigated and deemed her death as non-suspicious.
“Post-mortem investigations confirmed her cause of death as multiple bite injuries.
“In terms of my conclusion, I consider the most appropriate conclusion is accident. She had the dogs, which was an intentional act, but the unintentional outcome was that she died as a result of these injuries.”
In February last year it became illegal to sell, give away, abandon or breed from XL bullies.
Existing pets had to be certified and neutered and wear a muzzle in public.
At the time of this incident the Met Police said the dogs involved were licenced and Angeline’s inquest heard that when the laws changed Rainveer “was switched on and did what he needed to do”.
However, he was later prosecuted for “owning a fighting dog” as he had been assured that SJ was exempt.
He admitted a charge of being in possession or custody of a fighting dog at court in August.
