Pit-bull owner jailed four years after girl mauled

LONGUEUIL, QUE. — A Quebec 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 seven-year-old girl with severe damage to her face and cranium.

The term will begin once Jean Gilles’ sentence for assaulting a police officer expires. He is eligible for parole in July.

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 judge cited 23 previous offences, and the injuries suffered by the girl, as well as the serious and permanent after-effects.