A man has avoided jail after his XL Bulldog nearly scalped a woman and clamped down on the leg of another before it was shot in Oldham.
Carlton Thompson, 29, has now been banned from owning dogs for five years.
Police were called to Shakespeare Road following reports that two women had been attacked in the morning of October 22 last year.
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One of the women, a neighbour of Thompson, had gone to his house after seeing two of his dogs had gotten into her garden through a hole in the fence. One was the XL Bulldog, called Bali.
She tried to contact Thompson’s partner but got no response, so knocked on the door, which was answered by a 14-year-old boy.
“The neighbour and the 14-year-old boy tried to block the hole, at which point the dog poked its nose through the hole and walked into her garden,” prosecutor John Richards told Minshull Street Crown Court.
“When it got through it jumped up at her, and she put her hand out to stop him from jumping, but he clawed and bit her arm.”
The woman tried to open the jaws of the dog to get him off her, but he continued to bite her arms and legs. She was then thrown onto the floor onto her front, and it stood on her back and grabbed her by the ponytail.
The woman tried to run into her house, but the dog was able to get inside and bit her on the arm again.
She was left with multiple scratches and puncture wounds to both arms, legs, chest and back. Her scalp had also ‘come apart from the back of the head’, and had to be stitched, the prosecutor said.
In a statement, the woman said her biggest worry was for her children who saw the attack.
As Bali was attacking the woman, the 14-year-old boy ran to get help from another neighbour, who tried to get the dog to release its grip. Once it had left the first woman, she rushed to try and climb back over the fence, but it clamped down on her thigh and tried to pull her back into the garden.
She managed to escape but collapsed shortly afterward. The woman was rushed to hospital where she remained for months, and had to endure numerous surgeries and the possibility of losing her leg.
Her leg has fortunately stayed intact, but she has suffered from anxiety and a fear of dogs since the attack. She also said it had caused a ‘rift’ in the street.
Firearms officers were deployed to the scene at 10.05am. The area was evacuated shortly before the dog, who was in the garden at the time, jumped the fence and ran towards one of the officers. A taser was deployed twice before the dog was shot dead.
Thompson, who owned five dogs in total, was arrested and charged with being an owner in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury. The other dogs have since been rehomed.
In an interview with the police, he said: “I knew something like this would happen - I tried to get rid of it, I don’t allow the kids near the dogs.”
Mitigating, Mark Fireman said there was no suggestion his client didn’t take care of his dogs or look after them. He also said he was deeply remorseful.
“The dog in question was only seven months old,” Mr Fireman said.
“He had been to the police with concerns about it, though what concern he did have, it had never bitten another dog or attacked a person. He was just as shocked as everybody else by what happened.”
“He had an interest in dogs, and hoped he would get some money by breeding dogs and selling them elsewhere,” Mr Fireman added.
“He is not somebody who was training dogs to fight or training them to be aggressive.”
Sentencing, the judge, Recorder Lee Arnot, said the second neighbour bravely intercepted a dangerous situation before she was attacked.
“There was a lack of safety or control measures, in particular you had kennels, but you let the dogs out at a time you were out of the property,” he said.
“You let the dogs roam the property when you were not there to supervise them. This was a large boisterous dog, allowed to roam free.”
Thompson, of Shakespeare Road, Oldham, was handed 14 months imprisonment which was suspended for two years. He must also complete 15 days of rehabilitation activity requirements, and observe an electronically monitored curfew for six months between 8pm and 6am.
He was also disqualified from having custody of dogs for five years.
