A man was bitten by a dog over 20 times after he attacked its owner with a baseball bat.
In June 2020, Barzan Shekzade attacked Marcin Pluta with the metal bat on a street in Smethwick, near Birmingham, in England.
Pluta’s Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Leia, launched forward to protect her owner, biting Shekzade dozens of times.
The fight began when Shekzade drove past Pluta, who was out on his bike with his three dogs, and he confronted him over comments that had allegedly been made to his wife.
District Judge Stephen Flint told Walsall Magistrates Court that 43-year-old Pluta then “abandoned his dogs”, crossed the street and punched Shekzade in the face through his car window.
The defendant walked back across the road before Mr Shekzade "got out of his car with a baseball bat, made of aluminium, and crossed the road to Mr Pluta" - who began filming the victim - said the judge, the Mirror UK reports.
The judge said: "Mr Shekzade attacked Mr Pluta with the baseball bat.
“Whilst Mr Pluta fought with Mr Shekzade and tried to wrestle the baseball bat away from him, the dogs were jumping up, and Leia - the Staffordshire Bull Terrier - bit Mr Shekzade numerous times on his legs and around his buttocks area.
"Mr Pluta then managed to get the baseball bat off Mr Shekzade and he hit him with it numerous (times) on the shoulder, causing minor injuries.
"Mr Pluta then left the scene with the baseball bat and his three dogs. He himself had suffered injuries because he was hit with the baseball bat."
There was a further incident between the pair four days later where the defendant approached Mr Shekzade at a set of traffic lights and "threatened to destroy him", said the judge.
Pluta, who needed a Polish translator in court, was charged with being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control and caused injury, assaulting a person causing actual bodily harm and using threatening words to cause alarm and distress.
He went on trial and was subsequently found guilty of all three offences before he was sentenced on Monday, February 14.
Prosecuting, Mr John Dove, said the victim claimed he was "bitten by the dog more than 20 times" and suffered injuries to his left eye, which needed "glueing in hospital", along with scratches to his back.
Defending Pluta, who was Mr Vaughan Whistance, said his client - who was a welder - owned six Staffordshire Bull Terriers at his address and he kept them in individual cages in the house.
Mr Whistance said the "police saw this" when they went to arrest Pluta and officers found the dogs were housed safely.
The judge said he would "ordinarily have ordered the destruction" of Leia however there were exceptional mitigating circumstances that prevented him from doing so.
These were that the dog came to her owner's defence and there had been no other violent incidents concerning the dog during that day, or previously, or since then.
Mr Flint told Pluta: "Whilst you started the violence and got the dogs excited, it is mitigation that Leia attacked when you were being attacked with a baseball bat."
Instead, he made a "contingent destruction order" which meant that Leia could only be walked with a muzzle and on a lead, must be accompanied in public by someone aged 18 or older and become "insured".
Regarding Pluta's own sentence, he was given a 21 week prison term, suspended for one year, for all three offences.
Pluta, of Kilderkin Court, Smethwick, was further ordered to pay £250 (€300) compensation to Mr Shekzade, £620 (€743) prosecution costs and a £120 (€144) court surcharge.
He was also told he must carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and 12 rehabilitation sessions.
