UNITED KINGDOM -- A “DANGEROUS” dog faces a death sentence after attacking a string of victims, including a four-year- old boy.
The youngster was injured when he was attacked by the animal owned by Paul Ward, Southampton Crown Court heard.
The Japanese Akita cross-breed named Samson was also responsible for two other attacks that left a grandad with wounds needing more than 30 stitches, and a teenage cyclist with an infected hand after he was bitten.
The judge said: “To put it frankly the thing that is concerning is obviously the public risk.”
At the hearing it also emerged that a four year-old boy was attacked by the dog in May. The incident left him with cuts to his leg.
Last night one of Samson’s mauling victims, 61-year-old grandad Timothy Walker, pleaded for the dog’s destruction before a child dies.
He said: “This is a big dog. I am lucky because I am a big bloke – but if I had been a bit smaller or a child it could have been fatal.”
Mr Walker, a bailiff from Bedfordshire, needed 37 stitches after being savaged in February while attempting to evict Ward, who was pitched in Chilworth Science Park.
He explained how the dog’s jaws ripped into his left hand before the dog swallowed part of his watch. A colleague tried to pull the dog away but in doing so fell and dislocated his shoulder.
After being released from hospital, Mr Walker’s wounds took weeks to heal, and he says he remains haunted by nightmares and flashbacks of the attack.
Hours after the attack police and dog wardens ordered Ward to muzzle Samson, who he calls his “little baby” and to keep it under control in public while the investigation was under way.
But in March, Ward, 50, of Laundry Road, Shirley Warren, Southampton, pitched up on a grass verge in Bracken Place, Chilworth, where the court heard Samson struck again.
Student Harry Barron, 17, said he was wheeling his bike past Ward’s caravan at about 6pm when the dog sank its teeth into his hand.
The teenager spent three days in hospital after puncture wounds became infected.
Speaking to the Daily Echo, Mr Barron said Samson should be put down because he is dangerous.
He added: “It is very sad for the dog. I don’t think it is its fault, it is the way it has been brought up.”
Representing Ward, barrister Michelle Clarke said that the dog was no longer a danger as it was now living in a house with Ward and was not let out.
Ward is due to be sentenced in March.
(Daily Echo - Jan 28, 2012)
