The grandmother of Ellie Lawrenson, the five-year-old girl killed by a pitbull terrier, was acquitted of her manslaughter yesterday but left court with what the judge called a “life sentence of regret”.

The jury at Liverpool Crown Court found that Jacqueline Simpson’s decision to allow the dog into the house did not constitute the gross negligence necessary to prove the charge.

Last night Ellie’s father blamed Mrs Simpson for his daughter’s “barbaric and horrible death”. Darren Lawrenson, 31, told ITN: “She is a grandmother. She is supposed to look out for Ellie and protect her. She knew everything about that dog and that it was never to come into the house.

“I know people can say they have sympathy but if she was your child, and her grandmother knew what the dog was capable of, then, I am afraid, there can be no sympathy for her. I know, and she knows, she ended Ellie’s life.”

Mrs Simpson, who had drunk almost two bottles of wine and smoked nine to ten cannabis joints on the night of the tragedy, was told by the trial judge, Mr Justice Royce, that she had only a “life sentence of regret” to look forward to.

What the jury did not know was that she is a convicted heroin dealer and that police found a small quantity of the Class A drug stashed in the semidetached house in St Helens, Merseyside, after the child’s death.

Forensic science officers also discovered bundles of cash, amounting to £15,000, hidden throughout the property. The cash was seized as the proceeds of crime and its eventual destination is a still a matter of dispute.

Kiel Simpson, 24, a convicted drug dealer who owned the dog, was a notable absentee throughout his mother’s trial.

The prosecution could offer no evidence that the powerfully built family pet, called Reuben, had been used in its owner’s drug-dealing activities but such “fighting dogs” are routinely associated with a criminal lifestyle.

During the trial the jury was told that five-year-old Ellie stood no chance against the jaws of such an animal, which was twice her weight.

She had been staying at her grandmother’s house on New Year’s Eve and had pleaded with her parents, Mr Lawrenson and Lindsey Simpson, 25, to stay there when they called to take her home to Great Sankey, Warrington, at about 3.30am.

Instead of going straight to bed, Mrs Simpson, by then almost twice the legal drink-drive limit, allowed the child to stay up playing with her Christmas toys. At about 4am she took pity on the dog whimpering with fright at the fireworks bursting around its kennel and allowed it into the house with the child.

The prosecution alleged that she broke a hard-and-fast family rule not to allow such an unpredictable animal into the house when either Ellie or her four-month-old brother, Joshua, were inside.

There had been concern after the dog had attacked a neighbour and his Jack Russell and, six weeks before El

“ lie’s death, it had sunk its teeth into the thigh of Kelsey Simpson, 20, the child’s aunt.

The pathologist had counted 72 separate injuries on the child’s body, mainly to her face, neck and throat.

Mrs Simpson, a broken figure in plain black jacket and trousers, wiped away a tear as the jury said she was not guilty of manslaughter, which attracts a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Mr Justice Royce, the judge, told the court: “This is an unusual case which had given rise to very strong emotions. Suffice to say, the greatest sentence passed in this case is a life sentence of regret this lady has passed on herself.”

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