Lack of barking 'showed dogs knew the killer'

A dog psychologist has told a court that the killer of Jack Nicholas had to be a family member in order for his farm dogs to have remained silent on the morning he was shot.
Mr Nicholas' wife, Agnes, had told the court that it was strange that the farm dogs, kept in kennels near the house, did not bark before or after her husband was shot.

(...)He said there were only three reasons why the farm dogs would not have barked: they were extremely distracted, unwell, or were familiar with the person they saw.

"That familiarity level would have to be high ... It would have to be close, very close, if not a family member".

He said dogs usually barked on hearing a gun shot and he believed the only reason Mr Nicholas' dogs did not was due to the high familiarity factor with both the gun and the person.

He said it would be highly unlikely that anyone could have approached the Nicholas house without alerting the dogs in the still, frosty conditions on the morning of the murder.

A police reconstruction a month after the murder, at which an officer approached the house without the dogs barking, was called a "bungle" by Mr Hutton.
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