Man whose dog mauled girl jailed four years

LONGUEUIL , QUE. •A man whose pit bull-type dog mauled a young girl in 2015 was sentenced Friday to four years in jail, with the judge calling his behaviour “gross and extreme negligence.”

Quebec court Judge Pierre Belisle handed down the sentence for Karim Jean Gilles a month after he convicted him of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The attack left the sevenyear-old with severe damage to her face and cranium.

Neither of the girl’s parents were in court Friday, but Magdalena Biron said during the trial the attack in a park left her daughter Vanessa with fractures to the cranium and hand, as well as a cheekbone broken in seven places. She still has scars on her face.

Her partner, Bernard Biron, said at the time Vanessa did not bear any grudges, even though the attack left her unable to eat solid food for months.

“She had to go to school with a device connected to her veins because her brain was infected,” he said. “Because her skull was crushed in the back and the saliva of the dog infected her system.”

In a brief statement on the last day of his trial, Jean Gilles suggested to Belisle his animal might have been provoked.

The judge rejected the claim. In reading his sentence, Belisle said there were no mitigating circumstances that would have allowed a shorter sentence.

The four- year term will begin once Jean Gilles’ current sentence for assaulting a police officer expires. He is eligible for parole in July in that case.

Belisle said the dog attack was not a “one- off incident but rather part of repeated behaviour that has been going on for years.”

“The table was set for a tragedy,” the judge said. “The problem wasn’ t so much if the tragedy would occur but rather when it would happen.”

The judge cited several aggravating factors, including the accused being found guilty i n 23 previous offences, the injuries suffered by the girl as well as the serious after-effects.

“The absence of any awareness of t he nature and seriousness of the crime shows his dangerousness and is a sign of the risk of reoffending,” Belisle wrote.