A pit bull is going to be put down after attacking a young woman outside of her home. Missy, the dog attacked the woman by biting her hand in the communal garden at her home in Gorton which reportedly resulted in 'a lot of bleeding' and required stitches in hospital.
The dog's owner, Gary Boswell, has been sentenced to 10 months behind bars after confirming that he was the owner of Missy, who at the time was behaving aggressively unsupervised and caused an injury. Boswell has also been forbidden from owning a dog for a decade, Manchester Evening News reports.
Manchester Crown Court heard that Boswell used Missy as a form of 'protection' from drug dealers who he claims were 'cuckooing' around his property. The court also heard Missy was a 'banned breed' and that the dog had previously been seized in 2017 by police.
However, she was released after Boswell attained possession of an 'exemption certificate' which allowed him to keep the dog as long as certain rules were abided by regarding how she was kept. Police seized the dog again the following year after reports that Missy had 'gone for' a woman and her elderly mother, knocking the older woman to the floor.
No prosecution was brought and Missy returned to Boswell, prosecutor Robert Smith said. The victim, a neighbour of Boswell's in a block of flats in Southcross Road, Gorton, had complained about Missy to the housing authority about her being allowed to run free in their communal garden.
"She was concerned for her safety and that of her own dog," Mr Smith said. She and Boswell had come to an understanding, that she would shout over to Boswell when she was in the garden with her dog to ensure Missy was taken inside. Fencing was also installed.
In August 2020, the victim, a beautician in her 20s, had come home from work and shouted to Boswell to let her know she was in the garden. But shortly after she saw Missy appear in the garden, and went to move her dog out of the way.
Missy headed 'straight towards her' and bit her hand through the fencing. Boswell came out and pulled Missy away. She went to hospital and needed surgery, requiring stitching to her hand.
Mr Smith said that the woman suffered numbness as well as panic attacks and flashbacks, and has had to stop working as a beautician due to her injury. Defending, Natalie Goffe, said Missy had been let out by a friend of Boswell's.
She said Missy provided 'protection' for Boswell. She also said he has had 'long standing' drug issues but has been clean since last year.
Ms Goffe had appealed for Boswell to be spared jail, noting the probation service believed he posed a 'low risk' of committing further offences. But Judge Suzanne Goddard KC locked him up. "You were fully aware of the dangerous potential nature of this dog," she told him.
"It's clear to me you should have exercised more control over your dog. If you choose to have a dog like that, and you have a warning about the behaviour of that dog and that dog then injuries somebody, it becomes a very serious matter."
The judge also ordered that the dog should be destroyed. She said: "It seems to me that the necessary test is made out. There will be an order for the destruction of the dog Missy." Boswell, of Chester Road, Stretford, was also banned from having a dog for 10 years, after the judge said he was 'not a fit and proper person to have custody of a dog'.
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