A pit bull terrier has spent two years with a life sentence hanging over him as a legal fight over his future goes on. Albert, a banned variety of the breed, was seized by police and later magistrates ordered he should be destroyed.
However his owner, who is currently serving a seven year jail term after being convicted of robbery, is challenging the order. Travis Kendrick was part of a gang armed with knives who held up a victim on May 4, 2021.
Plymouth Live reports how a sentencing hearing was told how Kendrick had taken Valium and bleach when he shot a police officer twice with the officer's own Taser. The court was told it took 14 officers to restrain him.
But the hearing was also told the 24-year-old had been distraught when the incident happened. It heard how Kendrick's partner had suffered a miscarriage and his dog had been seized.
Albert has been on death row since late 2020 when magistrates ordered he should be destroyed. It was ruled the dog was dangerous and that Kendrick was "not a fit and proper person" to look after him.
Eleven months later the dog remained in kennels - paid for by Devon and Cornwall Police - after Kendrick, of Wolseley Road, Plymouth, launched an appeal against Albert's destruction. The appeal itself was adjourned until Kendrick was sentenced for the robbery and assault charges.
Due to Covid restrictions, it was not until January 2022 that Kendrick was handed a seven year jail sentence after he admitted the robbery, making using of a firearm with intent to resist arrest and three counts of assaulting police officers by beating. Six other counts of assaulting prison officers were taken into consideration and following his sentencing police revealed that one of those attacks was on a prison governor.
On Friday September 30 Kendrick appeared via video link at Plymouth Crown Court where a date was finally set for an appeal hearing for the life of Albert. Judge Robert Linford set down a one day hearing - on February 23, 2023.
Prosecutors intimated that the dog had been held in private kennels in Cornwall which were approved for use by Devon and Cornwall Police. The prosecutor claimed the dog had been held for more than a year, although this was evidently an underestimation.
During Kendrick's sentencing hearing in January 2022 his then advocate Ali Rafati noted that magistrates had ordered the destruction of the dog in November 2020, which means the dog will have remained on death row for 27 months by the time of the appeal next year. Judge Linford said the appeal would be heard on that date, adding that the matter "has gone on too long".
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