NEW ZEALAND -- A nine-year-old boy is recovering well from dog-bite wounds inflicted in 2013 and may have little visible scarring as he enters his teenage years, the Christchurch District Court has been told.
The owner of the two Rottweilers that inflicted the damage in September 2013, Ralph Neville Spark, was at the court today to have the rest of his community work sentence changed to a fine.
Judge Paul Kellar asked him how the boy was recovering and Spark said: "He's doing a lot better."
There would be some permanent scarring, but much of the damage had been on his scalp area.
"The specialist says that as he gets into his teenage years it will be hardly visible."
Spark was sentenced last July to 250 hours of community work on the charge of owning the dogs which caused injury to the boy.
The boy, Spark's stepson, had taken the dogs for a run at a park but they had unaccountably turned on him and savaged him.
The family immediately agreed to have the dogs euthanised and Spark pleaded guilty to the charge.
Since then he has done 41 hours of community work but applied to the court today for the sentence to be changed.
Defence counsel Donald Dickson told the court the Probation Service's report recommended a fine, but he suggested a donation would be more appropriate.
Judge Kellar agreed.
He said the incident had been a very traumatic experience for the whole family. Spark was a hard-working family man, who now had a new baby, and he was finding there was now difficulty coping with the remaining community work requirements.
The judge imposed a $1250 donation to the SPCA in place of the remaining community work.
"Rather than a fine, let's try to make some good come out of this," he said.
(Stuff NZ - Feb 17, 2015)
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