A former plumber, Richard Holmes, 65, was recently sentenced in Chester Magistrates’ Court for the savage attack perpetrated by his 18-month-old Rottweiler, Della, on a mother, Rebecca Lyth, and her two young children, aged nine and seven, and a passerby, Christopher Terry, while they were walking their small French bulldogs together in Luton Park, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, on August 30 last year.
Holmes pleaded guilty to four charges of being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control and causing injury and was handed an eight-week suspended sentence and ordered to pay £1,100 in damages.
The court issued a contingent destruction order for Della, which meant that the dog would not be put down if she behaves in the future, and the owner would fix a chain on his front door and a padlock on his back gate to ensure Della does not get out of the house unaccompanied.
In addition, Della will have to wear a muzzle in public, must be on a non-extendable lead no longer than 1.5m, and cannot be in the same room as a child without a muzzle. Both Della and Holmes must attend three sessions with a dog behaviourist.
The cause of the attack, which lasted between 10 and 20 minutes, remains unknown, although Holmes claimed that Della may have been “nipped” by one of the French bulldogs before the attack, and she had been attacked herself by another dog two weeks before the incident.
During the attack, Della “circled” the family before lunging at them, inflicting puncture wounds to their legs and buttocks. Passerby Christopher Terry was also injured as he tried to intervene.
According to Alan Currums, prosecuting, even after the police arrived, the defendant was unable to gain control of the dog, and it was substantially out of control. Three officers deployed their batons whilst a fourth stood between the dog and the family as Holmes attempted to regain control.
The two children were said to be “very distressed.” All four victims had their bite wounds cleaned and dressed and were given antibiotics.
In mitigation for Holmes, his defence lawyer Stephen Langton said that his recollection is that one of the complainant’s dogs went towards his dog, and his dog then reacted, and he accepts responsibility, that he lost control of the dog regardless of whether the dog was nipped or not.
Mr Langton added that Holmes has walked his dog three times a day for 18 months without incident, and he is probably searching for reasons why the dog has reacted in the way it did, and he accepts that it was a horrendous experience for the family.
Sentencing deputy district judge Mary Dowrick stated that a dog owner walking their dog off the lead needs to be alert to situations, especially in a situation where there has been an incident with another dog a couple of weeks before that. It was a severe aggravating factor that two of the victims were children, and it was aggravated by the prolonged nature of the attack.
However, she was helped by the canine expert report and numerous letters written by Holmes’s neighbours and people in the community.
The letters talk about his experience with dogs and how his dog normally behaves in public. It is clear from the report that he has been a dog owner for several years and that this is the first time that kind of incident has occurred.
»Richard Holmes, 65, is sentenced in Chester Magistrates’ Court«
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