A Staffordshire bull terrier that mauled a five-year-old woman’s face after being skilled as a fighting dog is to be destroyed, as a judge branded the proprietor “despicable” and mentioned the assault ought to have been prevented.
The woman, Elsie, was enjoying along with her older sister when she was set upon by the canine, known as Spike. She was dragged throughout the bottom by her hair earlier than it sank its tooth into her face.
A courtroom heard the canine had been mistreated for years, skilled to assault kids, and became a “biting, fighting dog” by its proprietor and her young son.
Neighbours on the south London property heard screaming when Elsie was attacked in September final yr, and located her with life-changing wounds. She faces medical therapy for all times and cosmetic surgery for her scars.
At Harrow crown courtroom, Recorder Charles Sherrard KC mentioned it was “an incident waiting to happen” and criticised authorities for not appearing sooner when there was proof of a harmful canine being recurrently on the free. Police had been known as to stories of the proprietor’s son, 11, being left alone with Spike and inspiring the canine to “bite upon command”, and the proprietor had been investigated for neglect by social providers.
Elsie’s mom mentioned: “Any film that has a dog in it that shows its teeth causes her to be extremely scared, even down to watching … Beauty and the Beast.” She mentioned her daughters beforehand “adored” dogs, however they now endure panic assaults and difficulties sleeping.
Finance supervisor Olwen Knowler, 57, was in courtroom to be sentenced over the assault, as she had let Spike and one other canine out of their home that day to alleviate themselves.
Knowler instructed police she had provided to let the dogs out two or 3 times a day, however had no additional involvement of their care. The decide discovered Knowler ought to have been conscious of the hazard that Spike posed when off the lead, because the canine had beforehand attacked her personal cat. But he accepted she was unaware of the animal’s years of maltreatment.
The decide sentenced her to an 18-month neighborhood order with 150 hours of neighborhood service.
Ordering Spike’s destruction, Recorder Sherrard took purpose on the proprietor who had “cowardly” failed to return to courtroom to assist Knowler, not made representations about the way forward for her pet, or provided to compensate the injured woman.
“Her behaviour throughout this has been despicable,” he mentioned. “I have no doubt the owner was never fit to look after that dog. It was being trained or educated by the owner and her son to turn the dog into a biting, fighting dog.”
Spike is ready to be destroyed in 28 days until an attraction is lodged. Knowler pleaded responsible to being accountable for a canine which prompted harm whereas dangerously uncontrolled.
