Jackie and Abbi Rossiter

by Rebecca Hughes

A family whose beloved dog fell to its death is warning others about a dangerous ditch.

Mum-of-two Jackie Rossiter was out walking her pet, Maggie, when the Staffordshire bull terrier ran into bushes and didn’t return.

After hours of searching in the darkness, Jackie, of Hill Road, Rochester, went home imagining Maggie would turn up.

But at 6am the following day her dog still hadn’t appeared, so Jackie and her partner Jim Ashton started searching again.

She said: “At first I just thought she was missing, but it wasn’t until the next day when we started looking and went through the broken fence and bushes that we realised what had happened.”

Behind the bushes was a “severe drop” into a disused moat, where two-year-old Maggie’s body was found.

Jackie said: “We were all absolutely devastated and angry when we found Maggie had fallen to her death.

“The drop is bigger than a house from top to bottom and we had no idea it was there, even though it is right near our house. There are no signs or anything saying what lies behind this broken fence.”

Full story in tomorrow's Medway Messenger.