The father of tragic dog attack victim Ellie Lawrenson has said he feels no sympathy for the woman cleared of her manslaughter.

Darren Lawrenson, 31, spoke out after Ellie's grandmother Jacqueline Simpson, 45, was cleared of her manslaughter.

He said: "You know, she's a grandmother, she is supposed to look out for Ellie and protect her and stuff like that."

Fighting tears, he added: "She was just a beautiful little girl - the best in the world."

Mr Lawrenson, of Warrington, Cheshire, described the verdict as "a kick in the teeth" after storming out of court on hearing the acquittal.

As revealed in the Evening Times yesterday, former heroin dealer Jacqueline Simpson was acquitted of her granddaughter's manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court after a six-day trial.

Ellie was killed by her uncle Kiel Simpson's pit bull terrier on New Year's Eve after Simpson let it into her home in St Helens, Merseyside. Ellie had 72 injuries.

In a court banning order, details of Jacqueline Simpson's past and current drugs charges were not allowed to be publicised.

The grandmother - who drank two bottles of wine and smoked 10 cannabis joints on the day Ellie was savaged - was jailed for 42 months in 1989 for heroin possession, it was reported.

And she was also facing the prospect of another trial after being charged with possession of heroin - which police found in searches after the five-year-old's mauling.

These charges have now been dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service said it was not in the public interest to pursue them.

But in an interview a month after her granddaughter was killed, she admitted: "I was jailed for three-and-a-half years for dealing heroin."