A 35-YEAR-old man in London has been found guilty of charges relating to dangerous dogs today after his dog attacked and seriously injured a four-year-old girl.
In December last year, police were called to the incident and the girl was taken to hospital with serious facial injuries, including potentially life changing injuries to her eye.
The Metropolitan Police said investigating officers later viewed “shocking” CCTV footage of the incident which showed the dangerous dog jumping up and attacking the child “completely unprovoked”, biting her face and pulling her off her scooter.
Detective Constable Shu’aib Gafur from Camden CID said said today that this was “a horrific dog attack on a young girl innocently riding her scooter”.
The brutal attack was witnessed by her eight year old brother and her mother who desperately tried to rescue her daughter. It has been a very traumatic time for the family. I hope today’s verdict brings some form of comfort to the family and helps them to move forward. This sentence serves as an important reminder to all dog owners to properly control their animals and take extra measures when out in public particularly around children.
Today the court heard that 35-year-old Hezrom Curtis “walked the streets of Camden” with two pitbull type mongrels – classified as prohibited dogs. It also heard how one of these dogs has a history of violence and had chased a cat into a residential property last year, bit a man inside the property and then killed the cat.
Curtis was today found guilty of possession of a prohibited dog and two counts of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control in a public place.
The first dangerous dog has been ordered to be destroyed. The second dangerous dog awaits a formal Magistrates court decision order for destruction.
As a result of this incident in December police launched a review of all previous allegations of dog bites in Camden. The matter was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), who instructed that it should be investigated by the MPS Department of Professional Standards (DPS).
Four officers are currently the subject of an internal investigation relating to the other incident, the Metropolitan Police said today.
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