John McColl, 84, died a month after he was attacked by the dog in Warrington, Cheshire, last February.
A dog owner has been convicted after his XL bully savaged an elderly man in a fatal attack.
John McColl, 84, was attacked by the dog, owned by Sean Garner, after he wandered onto the driveway of his home in Warrington, Cheshire, in February last year.
He died from his injuries about a month later.
The animal, which was called Toretto and weighed seven stone and four pounds, was shot 10 times by armed police.
Garner, 31, was found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday of being the owner of a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control.
He showed no reaction as the verdict was returned, but members of his family were in tears in the public gallery.
The jury heard Mr McColl was on his way home from the pub shortly after 6pm on February 24 when he walked into the driveway of Garner’s home, where the dog had been left on a patio area which the prosecution alleged was only secured by a gate with a latch.
Neighbours described using items including a spirit level and a walking stick to try and get the dog away from Mr McColl.
Opening the week-long trial, David Birrell, prosecuting, said: “The dog guarded him as if he were its prey. It savaged him.”
An examination of the dog later found it had no food in its stomach, but it had begun to eat Mr McColl alive.
The court heard Garner, his then-pregnant partner and two children had moved into the semi-detached home three weeks before the incident and told the landlord they had one French bulldog, despite owning two XL bullies and a micro bully dog.
Giving evidence, Garner, who has previous convictions for driving offences and possessing drugs with intent to supply, claimed he took steps to ensure Toretto and the second XL bully, a female called Malibu who was shot when police found her inside the house, were not dangerously out of control.
He claimed the male dog was in a shed which was bolted and padlocked on the patio, which he said had a gate that was secured with a latch and chain.
Garner told the court at the time of the attack he did not know the dogs’ breed, which was banned in 2024, although the court heard he had previously advertised Malibu for breeding as an XL bully on Instagram.
He said he had not walked the dogs for about 10 days, but said he had allowed them onto the patio for exercise.
Garner, who described Toretto as “missing a few nuts and bolts” in a message to his mother, told the court: “I could never imagine that a man who has been the pub could go up my path on his way home and do what he has obviously done to let my dog out.”
In his closing speech, Mr Birrell described Garner as a “selfish, reckless risk taker who couldn’t care less” and told “bare-faced lies”.
He said Garner’s claims that Mr McColl had released the “big, savage dog” from a padlocked shed were “ludicrous” and “absurd”.
Garner, now of Belle Vale, Liverpool, previously admitted two counts of possessing an XL bully without an exemption certificate.
He is due to be sentenced on April 17.
