UNITED KINGDOM -- A judge has ordered the destruction of two American bulldogs and jailed their owner after a man suffered wounds.
Colin Clayton was badly bitten on his arm that police officers could see the bone and a court heard yesterday that some of the injuries had left permanent scars.
Mr Clayton had been staying at the flat of former Territorial Army man Garry Dudding, in Thirkhill Court, West Bowling, Bradford, when the two men got into an argument after drinking. Prosecutor Kirsten Mercer told Bradford Crown Court that at the time of the incident in February there were three American bulldogs in the flat, with 11 puppies.
Dudding owned two, Kia and Kenya, and it emerged that in 2011 he was given a community order after being convicted of allowing Kia to be dangerously out of control in a public place causing injury.
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said Dudding knew the disposition of both of dogs and they had attacked Mr Clayton during the row.
“You utterly failed to control the dogs or prevent the attack,” the judge told him.
“The injuries to Mr Clayton were, not surprisingly, profound. Very, very deep tears and wounds to his arms and there is permanent consequential damage.”
The judge said the public would be appalled, shocked and distressed by the photographs of the wounds. Miss Mercer said Dudding, 35, had 18 previous convictions for 59 offences and six of them involved offences against the person.
At his trial this year Dudding pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful wounding and two offences of having a dog dangerously out of control causing injury.
Barrister Sarah Barlow, for Dudding, said he pleaded guilty on the basis that he had been reckless rather than any deliberate act to use the dogs as a weapon.
She said Dudding had developed a problem with drink after a friend and neighbour suffered an unexpected heart attack and he discovered her body.
Judge Durham Hall said he could not suspend the prison sentence and jailed him for 15 months.
He ordered the destruction of the dogs and banned Dudding from keeping dogs indefinitely.
(Bradford Telegraph and Argus - Nov 16, 2012)
