A tribunal has ruled that a police dog, which bit a woman while breaking up a rave near Bristol, cannot be named. The decision ends a two-year long battle to reveal the dog’s name, its records and whether its handler commanded the dog to bite the woman’s leg.
Jessica Mae Andrew was left needing surgery after attending a Halloween rave in Yate in 2020, when police broke up the lockdown-breaking event with force. A police dog mauled her leg while she danced and she said at the time that it had left “a gaping hole in my calf bigger than my fist”.
Since the attack, Avon and Somerset Police have faced dogged questions over why the incident was allowed to happen, disproportionate force and what training and qualifications the dog’s handler had received. But the new ruling leaves many questions unanswered.
