Jess, a four-year-old black and white Great Dane, will be allowed to return to the care of Carol Crawford, 47, even though the 15-stone dog launched a vicious attack.
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| Injustice for the victim whose face has been disfigured |
Stephen McQuiggin, 54, was left with injuries after he was bitten as he delivered a package last September to her bungalow in Flodden Close, Chester-le-Street, County Durham.
The self-employed driver told Durham Crown Court he felt “excruciating pain” when the dog bit off the tip of his nose and has had to undergo four operations to repair the damage to his face.
He had heard Jess and another Great Dane, Brutus, barking and told Mrs Crawford that he would not open and enter the gate, that she did not have to sign for the parcel. However, Mr McQuiggin testified that Mrs Crawford had said “Don’t be silly, they just want to say hello.”
Moments later he reeled back in pain.
Mrs Crawford never denied Jess was responsible – though she believed Jess may have caught him with a sharp claw on her paw in a “freak accident” – and disputed Mr McQuiggin was on the footpath when he was injured.
For her to be guilty of owning a dog dangerously out of control, the attack had to be in public, and she claimed Mr McQuiggin was standing on a neighbour’s drive when he was hurt.
She burst into tears after the jury, which has heard three days of evidence, took 45 minutes to clear her.
Mrs Crawford’s husband Mark, cheered in the public gallery.
[The victim, Mr McQuiggin testified in court that Mr Crawford gave him £200 to bribe him into not telling police about the attack for fear "the dogs would be destroyed". The Crawfords lawyer, though, said that the money was given b/c they felt sorry for the victim.]
Mr McQuiggin is also suing the couple as well as the Great Dane Adoption Society, where the Crawfords got Jess as a puppy in 2007 and where she has been kept for several months.
Mrs Crawford wept in the witness box this week as she recalled how police came to take her pet away, saying Jess would be destroyed. But the pet was taken back to the charity’s Lincolnshire headquarters pending the outcome of this trial instead.
Tony Davis, defending, told the court: “The dog hopefully will be reunited with Brutus in due course.”
Outside court, the family solicitor Ian Wilson said: “All the way through Carol has not denied there has been an injury caused.
“The dispute was whether or not the dog was in its own property or not. Obviously, in coming to their decision, the jury has concluded what Carol has been saying was the truth.
“She was very emotional at the end and she’s extremely delighted that the dog will be reunited with Brutus.
She loves the dogs and she wanted her back where she belongs.” The couple, who did not receive legal aid and paid privately for their defence, were awarded costs.
(Journal Live - May 28, 2011)
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