Widow describes moment bull killed husband as 'utter nightmare', court hears

Happier times: Glenis Freeman with husband Roger

8 April 2014

A widow whose husband was killed by a bull described the fatal attack as a "complete and utter nightmare", a court heard.

Glenis Freeman, then 67, said she tried to distract the animal from her husband Roger when it attacked him as they walked on a public footpath running across Underhill Farm in Stanford-on-Soar, in November 2010.

Mr Freeman, 63, died at the scene from multiple injuries, while his wife needed surgery for abdominal and chest injuries.

Farmer Paul Waterfall, who owns the farm in Nottinghamshire, is on trial at Nottingham Crown Court charged with manslaughter by gross negligence. He denies the charge.

Jurors were shown a DVD of the interview Mrs Freeman, now 70, gave to police two months after the attack after she was discharged from hospital.

Mrs Freeman told the officer: "It was as though we were in a nightmare."

She said her husband was floored by the bull's attack and could not get up.

"Roger said 'It's got me in the groin. I can't get up. I'm sorry Glenis I can't get up'."

Mrs Freeman told the police she tried to distract the animal from her husband by putting down her rucksack but it charged at her twice.

"One of the times it hit me in the chest", she told the officer.

"I don't know how many times it charged Roger."

She said the couple left Nottingham that morning after seeing a show at the theatre the night before. They had planned to walk to Loughborough on November 12 and stay overnight at another hotel before walking on to their home in Glena Parva, Leicestershire.

They were walking along the public footpath at around 4.30pm when the attack happened.

She told police she was walking ahead when she heard an "oof" from her husband and turned around to see him on the floor with the bull over him.

Describing the bull, she said: "He was brown. It was slobbering a lot. I think it looked at me straight in the face. It looked as though, it wasn't being playful, but it looked like it was wound up somehow, it looked excited. It wasn't just a calm bull standing there...it looked excited."

Mr Freeman, who was by this point wearing just his underpants and walking boots shouted to go and get help.

"The last time Roger said anything at all he shouted out 'I'm sorry my baby, I can't get us out of this'," Mrs Freeman told the officer.

A keen walker since the age of 18, she told police she had walked through fields with cows in them many times before but said: "I had never been in a situation like that before - never. I was absolutely petrified."

Prosecutors claim Mr Waterfall, 39, knew the bull, named Moonriver Zac Pi, posed a "deadly risk" to walkers who used the public footpath.

Known as Zac, the 19-month-old Brown Swiss bull had been involved in two previous incidents just weeks before the alleged fatal attack on Mr Freeman, prosecutor Andrew McGee told the jury yesterday.

During his opening, Mr McGee told the court: "As a farmer, Mr McGee had a duty of care to those who used the public footpath. Paul Waterfall had that duty of care and knew his bull posed a real risk of death to people using that path."

He added that Waterfall, of Underhill Farm, had been "grossly neglectful" in failing to take any steps to prevent that risk.

Waterfall was charged with gross negilgence manslaughter last year following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive. It is alleged he breached his duty of care to the public by failing to ensure the bull was safely confined on his land.

The trial continues.

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