Dog which savaged Litton Horton teenager 'may have attacked before'

UNITED KINGDOM -- Police are investigating claims that the dog responsible for a serious attack that hospitalised a teenager had savaged a nine-year-old boy days earlier.

Donna Gilpin said she had pleaded with the police to destroy the dog after her son Callum was bitten on Sunday, August 11, at teatime.

He was playing in a garden near her home on Nene Street, on the Canterbury Estate in Bradford, when he came running down the road screaming.

Miss Gilpin said: “My son was screaming he had been bitten and we had to take him to Bradford Royal Infirmary. He was bitten on the back and hip and it is good job he is a big lad or it could have been a lot worse.

“When I heard about the latest one I rang the police straight away because I want that dog destroyed. It ripped my son’s back in three different places and he has to have skin grafts. He is petrified of dogs now and I think he will need counselling.”

Miss Gilpin said she believed the dog involved in both attacks was the same one. She said yesterday an officer had called her to ask for a description of the dog which had attacked Callum.

“They [the police] had previously told me it was not a dangerous dog and because it happened in a garden it wasn’t classed as a dangerous dog,” she said.

A police spokesman said they were investigating claims the dog attacks were linked after contact with Miss Gilpin. “We do not know if it is the same dog and inquiries are ongoing,” the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, the 13-year-old boy who was left with serious neck injuries after being attacked on Sunday is making good progress in hospital.

The boy, named locally as Luka, was taken to Leeds General Infirmary. He was originally described as being in a critical condition, but has now stabilised and is expected to pull through, according to police.

Armed police had shot the animal dead so they could get into the house in Frank Street, Little Horton, to treat the teenager.

Before the police arrived, a neighbour confronted the dog and gave the injured boy time to get upstairs and away from the animal.

Another neighbour said: “He’s a real hero.”

The man, who said he only wanted to be known as Dean, said he did not want to discuss the incident any further.

(Telegraph and Argus - Aug 20 2013)