Do we value children or dogs, asks sheriff after rottweilers trial

THE owner of two rottweilers, which savaged a 10-year-old girl in the street, has been jailed for a year.

A SHERIFF called for a change in Scotland’s laws on dangerous dogs as he jailed the owner of two rottweilers that savagelymauled a ten-year-old schoolgirl, leaving her scarred for life.

Derek Adam, 39, was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment – half the maximum sentence – and banned from keeping dogs for life by Sheriff Richard Davidson at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday fri.

Last December Adam, of Lintrathen Street, Dundee, was found guilty of being the owner of the rottweilers, named Fat Boy and Pretty Girl, which were dangerously out of control in a public place when they attacked the schoolgirl. She was repeatedly bitten and mauled, causing severe injury and permanent disfigurement. He was also convicted of failing to comply with a court order to keep the rottweilers under control after they previously attacked a man.

Sheriff Davidson, who praised the courage of a local woman who rescued the girl as the rottweilers attacked her in the street, told the court that the “disturbing” case had served to highlight the inadequacies of the current laws governing the control of dangerous dogs.

And he told Adam: “This was a spectacular failure on your part and a spectacular failure of the legislation you were subject to.”

The trial was told that the young schoolgirl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been mauled by the two dogs in Dryburgh Street, Dundee, in August 2010after the two dogs owned by Adam escaped from the garden of his ex-partner’s Dundee home. They pulled the terrified girl from her bike, dragging her onto the road and attacked her, biting her face, head, neck, arms and legs and leaving her requiring surgery to repair a broken jaw and treat “gaping” wounds on her leg. Fiscal depute Bill Kermode told the trial jury: “Fat Boy and Pretty Girl are not man’s best friend as we know dogs to be.They were snarling, angry beasts that already had a taste for human flesh.”

The schoolgirl was saved by a courageouslocal resident Irene Grady, 57, who rescued the girl from the snarling animals.

Sentencing Adam, Sheriff Davidson said the case highlighted that need for tighter controls in the current lawsdealing with the control of dangerous dogs. He said that politicians had to decide “whether dogs or children come first.”

He told Adam: “These dogs were dangerous - you knew you had been ordered to keep them under control - but here they were wreaking havoc in the street. You allowed this to happen, knowing they might well attack.

“People like you who only keep big dogs to make up for their own inadequacies have to be clear that they will suffer the consequences. You demonstrated a complete disregard not just for law but for your neighbours and other local residents. This is a case of flagrant and gross disregard for the law and, given the harm caused to the child, there has to be harsh punishment.”

He also praised the courage of Mrs Grady. Said Sheriff Davidson: “It is to her eternal credit that she remained at least outwardly calm. She deserves commendation for her cool head in what must have been very trying circumstances.”

The schoolgirl, who is now aged 11, spent a month in Ninewells Hospital undergoing plastic and facial surgery following the attack.

She was yesterday holidaying with her mother in the Canaries. But her grandfather, who had been sitting in the public benches as Adam was sentenced, said as he left the court that the owner of the two rottweilers should have been handed the maximum two year sentence.

He said: “I thought he should have got a lot longer but we are satisfied with that. He couldn’t care less about the bairn.”

Commenting on the sheriff’s calls for a tightening in the dangerous dog laws, the grandfather said: “They should at least be muzzled in public and maybe licensed. But I know people that have had Rottweilers and they have been brilliant dogs.”

He added: “My granddaughter is having wee break in the sun with her mum. She is looking fine now, apart from the scar on the back of her leg. She’s great.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “This was a horrible incident and our sympathies lie with the child and the family of the child who was attacked. The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 is UK legislation which applies in Scotland and governs the ownership of dangerous dogs.”