The owner of a dog that mauled an 11-month-old baby to death in 2014 was today jailed for 18 months after a court found him guilty of owning a dangerous breed banned in the UK. Lee Wright, 27, was also banned from keeping dogs for five years.
The owner of a dog that mauled an 11-month-old baby to death in 2014 was today jailed for 18 months after a court found him guilty of owning a dangerous breed banned in the UK. Lee Wright, 27, was also banned from keeping dogs for five years.
Ava-Jayne Corless was attacked by the dog while sleeping at a house in Blackburn, Lancashire, in February last year. Wright had denied the claim his pet, called Snoop, was a banned pit bull-type that contravened the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Passing sentence, District Judge Gerald Chalk said: "You allowed a dog of nine stone in weight to have contact with a young child asleep in your bed. You were aware that dog had access. "That dog killed that child in an offence of the gravest harm imaginable. Only a custodial sentence can be justified." But he added: "You clearly felt the tragedy and have shown some remorse."
The judge agreed there was no evidence to suggest Wright had known the dog was of a prohibited breed. He said both expert witnesses had relied on the American Dog Breeders Association as standard in making their assessment of the dog, but said it was "comment rather than definitive". Wright had disputed the pet was a banned pit bull type dog in contravention of the Dangerous Dogs Act, saying he believed it to be an American pit bull.
Ava-Jayne was killed at the defendant's house in Blackburn, as her mother Chloe King and Wright - her then- boyfriend - slept.
They believed the dog was in the kitchen blocked in by a speaker and a golf bag stand. Police said at the time the dog - which has since been euthanised - had been identified by experts as a pit bull terrier-type. Coroner Michael Singleton said at her inquest: "I recognise that every death I deal with represents a personal tragedy for someone, but in more than 20 years of doing this job I have to say the circumstances of the death of Ava-Jayne represent by far the most horrendous that I have had experience of."
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