An elderly lady was hurt attempting to save her cat from being assaulted by dogs, a court heard today.
Lena Pepper, 84, suffered a hand injury as she attempted to stop a black whippet-type dog from trampling her family pet Bruce, who was killed throughout the occurrence outside the pensioner’s home in Colburn.
Today, the dog’s owner Kyle Banks, 29, appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court for sentence after he confessed supervising of a precariously out of control dog which triggered injury to Mrs Pepper.
Prosecutor Andrew Finlay said the pensioner was beinged in her living-room when she head a “loud bang” at her front door.
When she went outside to examine, she saw Banks standing at the bottom of her drive and yelling at his 3 dogs – a whippet and 2 greyhounds – which were trampling her cat.
Mrs Pepper screamed at Banks to get his dogs off her family pet and stepped down onto the path to attempt to rescue Bruce however was bitten or scratched on her wrist by the whippet.
Mr Finlay said the pensioner was so desperate to save her family pet that in the beginning she didn’t feel any discomfort.
He said that at one point 2 of the dogs were pulling the cat from either end.
According to Mrs Pepper, it appeared that “all (Banks) was bothered about was his dog and not what happened to her cat”.
Mrs Pepper’s child lastly handled to get the dog off his mom and ushered her within. Banks provided his address.
Mrs Pepper and her child were then frightened to discover that Bruce was not breathing and had actually passed away from his injuries.
It was just then that Mrs Pepper understood she had a cut to her hand and 2 leak injuries on her wrist.
Mr Finlay said the “whole incident made her go into shock and she didn’t feel well”.
“She said losing her cat made her feel completely lost,” he included.
“She keeps thinking she can hear him.”
To substance her troubles, Mrs Pepper’s wrist injury ended up being contaminated.
She was confessed to the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, then moved to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough where she invested 2 days getting treatment for the infection.
Banks, who is jobless, was generated for questioning and informed authorities he had actually been going to a friend right before the occurrence, which happened on Meadowfield Road at about 8pm on October 20 in 2015.
He said he was practically to put a lead on his dogs after leaving his friend’s house when a cat appeared.
In a declaration read out in court, animal enthusiast Mrs Pepper said she might still not bear to eliminate her cherished cat’s food bowl from the cooking area.
She said she felt “really poorly” after the dreadful occurrence and she still wasn’t sleeping appropriately.
“I just know that my whole being was upset,” she included.
She said it was her physician who recommended her to look for medical facility treatment after seeing her severely inflamed, discoloured hand. She received intravenous treatment for the infection and was released 2 days later on.
She said she was “really lucky” the physician saw the infection due to the fact that “all I was thinking about at the time was losing my Bruce”.
Banks, of Alexander Way, Richmond, had 19 previous convictions for 27 offenses consisting of violence, harassment and drug dealing.
In 2016, he was imprisoned for 6 months for drug supply. The list below year, he received a 21-month prison sentence for attack occasioning real physical damage.
A law enforcement officer’s report kept in mind there was absolutely nothing to recommend that Banks’s working dogs were normally of bad character which Banks typically kept them on a lead.
The prosecution didn’t request for a damage order outright, just that the whippet be put down if Banks didn’t keep it under control in future.
Defence lawyer Rhianydd Clement said that Banks, a father-of-one, had mental-health issues however had actually turned his life around because being launched from his last jail sentence.
Judge Timothy Stead said the occurrence was so traumatic he had actually chosen not to sum up the case.
He included, nevertheless, that he was pleased Banks “very much regrets that it happened at all”.
Banks was offered a 12-month neighborhood order with as much as 25 days’ rehab activity and a 100-day doorstep curfew which restricts him leaving his home address in between 7pm and 7am daily.
He was bought to pay £250 prosecution expenses, however the judge said the loss and hurt triggered to Mrs Pepper implied that any payment he bought would “almost be seen as insulting”.
Mr Stead said he saw no factor to disqualify Banks from keeping dogs as his record as an owner was formerly unblemished, nor did he feel it essential to make a damage order in relation to the whippet or do something about it versus any of his dogs.
