Jason Roberts jailed after dog attack on woman in Mold
A man has been jailed after his Staffordshire bull terrier and another dog attacked a woman walking her own dog in Flintshire.
Jason Roberts, 42, admitted owning a dog that was dangerously out of control in his home town of Mold.
Flintshire magistrates heard he had laughed during the attack in which the woman was bitten and her dog injured.
Roberts was jailed for 10 weeks, banned from keeping a dog for five years and ordered to pay £500 compensation.
The court heard Natasha Lopuc and a friend were walking her dog around the Mold Alex Football Club field in April when two Staffordshire bull terriers ran up and started to attack.
Miss Lopuc tried to protect her dog, which was still recovering from injuries inflicted in an earlier attack.
She was left bleeding heavily after she was bitten on the hand four times, while her dog Jaeger, which was on a lead, was left badly injured with part of its ear missing.
The court heard that the two attacking dogs were said to be acting like a tag team, ferociously biting at Miss Lopuc's dog in turns.
One locked its jaws on her dog's neck and only let go when the defendant came to the scene and intervened.
The court heard that neither of the attacking dogs was on a lead.
Two men laughed at her plight, dragged the dogs away and then swore at her and tried to blame her for the incident.
Roberts claimed that he had pinned his dog to the ground at an early stage in the attack and that his animal was not responsible for some of the more serious injuries inflicted.
The court heard that initially Roberts had named the other dog owner but then changed his mind and said he had no idea who owned it.
Roberts' dog Taz was ordered to be destroyed but he said he had already got rid of it, giving it to some travellers.
Prosecutor Tracey Willingham said that the prosecution was concerned that the dog was still at large.
Miss Willingham said that Roberts had admitted in his pre-sentence report that he had deliberately got rid of the dog to avoid it being destroyed.
That, she said, was done to deliberately frustrate the court proceedings, and the police would now be asked to look into it.
District Judge Andrew Shaw said: "It is perhaps a dog owner's worst nightmare when lawfully exercising her own animal on a lead to be attacked by another, or in this case by two other dogs.
"One was yours. You know the identity of the other but will not disclose it."
He said Roberts, of Alyn Meadows, had a long criminal record including convictions for personal violence.