10-year pet ban for pair after boy bitten
A man and woman who admitted allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control when it attacked a child have been banned from owning dogs for 10 years.
Penny Stanton, who was the owner of the Staffordshire terrier-type dog called Bonnie, and Nicholas Chapman, who had been looking after the animal when it attacked, were both sentenced at Walsall Magistrates Court.
Mrs Kelly Crowe, prosecuting, told the court the 10-year-old boy was walking along Neath Road, in Bloxwich, Mossley, on June 14 when the dog, which was not on a lead, ran out of a garden and bit him on the left wrist
She said the animal had shaken his arm like it was a rag doll.
Mrs Crowe said: "The dog was then kicked off the victim by a witness.Someone ran to get a towel in order to wrap it round the wound which he had sustained and took the victim home.
"The victim was tended to in hospital. Unfortunately the wound was too large for stitches and he had to return to the hospital for further treatments as a result.
"The dog has since been taken to the vet and was put down.
"There has been a previous incident regarding the same dog and it was previously subject to a local resolution order after it bit another member of the public."
She said Chapman followed the boy home to check if he was all right.
The court had previously heard that a 13-year-old girl was also attacked by the dog in Bloxwich in March this year, when Chapman was again looking after the animal, and she suffered scratches to her stomach.
During a police interview, Stanton said she had an arrangement with Chapman to look after the dog when she was working and trusted him to be responsible.
Chapman told officers the dog had been on a lead but had got free from its collar.
Stanton, aged 39, of Broad Lane, Bloxwich, and Chapman, aged 42, of Kipling Road, Short Heath, Willenhall, admitted allowing the dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place.
Miss Sarah Froggatt, defending Chapman, said: "He accepts the full facts of the prosecution's case."
Stanton, who represented herself, was not asked to address the magistrates.
Chairman of the bench Dr Malcolm Taylor sentenced both to a community order with a requirement to carry out 100 hours unpaid work.
They must each pay the victim £300 compensation, and were each ordered to pay a victims' surcharge of £60 and £85 costs.
Mr Taylor also told Chapman and Stanton they were now disqualified from owning or keeping dogs for 10 years.
