Devastated family of mum mauled to death by 2 XL Bullies ‘begged her to get rid of them’ before horror Hornchurch attack
A MUM mauled to death by two XL Bully dogs was begged by her family to get rid of the pets, a relative claims.
Angeline Mahal, 50, was found fighting for her life yesterday at a home in Hornchurch, East London.
Cops with riot shields rushed to Cornwall Close and stormed the property after getting frantic calls about a “critical incident”.
Angeline, named locally and pictured, could not be saved and the two XL Bully dogs, which have been at the centre of 13 fatal attacks in less than three years, were seized by officers.
The beautician – known to friends as Angel – was discovered by her devastated sons lying in her hallway after she was attacked at home in Hornchurch, East London.
The close family member said that he feared Angeline had been dead for many hours before she was discovered.
He told The Sun: “We miss her, she was sincere and loved by everyone.
“We asked her to get rid of the dogs. The bond with owners and their dogs is too strong.”
He said: “She had two dogs from when they were puppies. They were registered. It was more likely to have been one of them attacked her.
“We are just shocked. You hear about these attacks in a paper but you never expect this to happen to your own family.
“Her sons were the ones who raise the alarm on. They tried to do CPR to save her.
“We miss Angeline, she was a sincere woman with a kind heart.
“I told her many times to get rid of the dogs. This is an aggressive breed. She had them from puppies.
“We all read about the attack in Jaywick and it frightened us.
“She’s had many dogs over the years. It’s hard to pay attention to them. The dogs took up a lot of her time, they took away her freedom.
“She kept them in cages in one of the rooms.
“The whole family is distraught from this, her sons are devastated. Angeline was loved by everyone.”
A terrified grandmother told of seeing medics desperately performing CPR on her neighbour – before local residents were evacuated by cops.
The woman, 72, told The Sun: “ I’ve never seen so many police and paramedics. It was terrifying.
“I came outside to see what was happening and they were giving the lady chest compressions on the floor outside her house.
“We were asked to go back inside by police. About an hour later, police came and asked us to evacuate. We were all taken to the edge of the cordon and had to wait.
“It was truly horrific. Having to register the dogs simply isn’t enough to stop this, more needs to be done.”
Other neighbours have now told of their horror after hearing about the mauling, labelling it “awful”.
One, who did not wish to be named, told the Mirror: “The dogs weren’t killed, they’ve taken them away.
“There’s been vans back and forth non-stop since lunchtime and we saw the helicopter come over and you assume the worst.
“Campion [a nearby school and sixth form college] isn’t far from here so you panic it’s kids or something.
“You never think a dog’s going to do that. It’s awful.”
Police remained at the scene this morning and a blue tent still sat in the home’s front garden.
A sticker on the house window read: “Nevermind the dog, beware of the kids.”
Meanwhile, mum-of-one Sejal Solanki, 37, who lives on Cornwall Close, said she saw a woman walking an unmuzzled XL bully outside the victim’s house last week.
She told The Sun: “Last night I could hear dogs barking and then after that the whole road was full of police cars.
“About a week ago I was with my son and I saw an XL bully being walked by a woman outside that house. It didn’t have a muzzle on.
“I explained to my seven-year-old son that it was a dangerous dog and he should never pat that dog. I told him never to go near it.
“A lot of kids walk through here to get to school and there’s always kids playing here.
“The fact that those dogs have done that to her. Can you imagine if it had got out and the kids were playing on the street.
Fatal XL Bully attacks
Woman in her 50s mauled to death at home by two XL Bully dogs in Hornchurch, East London on May 20, 2024.
Esther Martin, 68, was looking after her grandson in Jaywick, Essex, when dogs Bear and Beauty attacked her on February 3, 2024.
Ian “Scouse” Langley, 54, was protecting his puppy when the animal pounced on him outside a home in Sunderland in October 2023.
Ian Price, 52, was viciously savaged in September 2023 by the beasts as he tried to protect his elderly mum from them after they escaped.
Jonathan Hogg, 37, was killed in May 2023 entered the dog’s pen when it went for him, leaving bite wounds on his arm, leg and head.
Natasha Johnston, 28, was mauled to death while walking a pack of dogs in January 2023 was believed to have been killed by her own pet – an American Bully XL.
Shirley Patrick, 83, died 17 days after being mauled in a “hellish”, violent dog attack in December 2022.
Ian Symes, 34, who was known to friends as “Wiggy”, died at a recreation ground in Fareham, Hampshire, after the savage attack in August 2022.
Joanne Robinson, 43, was fatally mauled by pet Rocco at her home in Rotherham, South Yorkshire in July 2022.
Keven Jones, 62, went into cardiac arrest after being bitten by Cookie-Doe at Chanel Fong’s home in Wrexham, North Wales in May 2022.
Bella-Rae Birch, one, was mauled to death in March 2022 at her home by the American Bully XL.
Jack Lis, 10, was killed by a hulking XL Bully dog named Beast in November 2021 as he played at friend’s home in Caerphilly.
“It doesn’t bear thinking about.
“I’m really glad they brought the ban out but even then it doesn’t stop things like this happening.
“People are just going to register them and still have them. It makes no difference. People are still able to own those dogs.”
Another neighbour said: “She was a pleasant woman, very lovely.
“You could hear the dogs barking, but I never saw them.
“I knew her as Angel.”
A bracelet taken from the home in a clear plastic bag also read ‘Angel’.
Other neighbours also knew her by this name, whilst one man living opposite said she “didn’t talk much”.
The man working at a house a few doors down from the victims’ said he saw a woman brought out of the house “on a bed” yesterday, but found it strange that he hadn’t heard the brutal attack unfold.
“I never heard no noises at all,” he said.
“One of my workmates turned up at 20 past one and there were so many police and armed response officers.
“The armed response officers were here immediately. We thought it was a stabbing or a shooting or something.
“We saw someone get pulled out of the house on a bed getting CPR.
“I couldn’t see her because there was too many people around her.
“It was strange, because there were no noises… That’s the weird bit about it.
“I spoke to a police officer [yesterday afternoon], and she said it happened yesterday, so I reckon it could have happened through the night.”
Since February 1 it has been illegal to own an XL Bully in England and Wales without a certificate has been a criminal offence.