Woman cleared after dogs ‘attacked man’
NOT GUILTY OF ‘DANGEROUSLY OUT OF CONTROL’ PETS
A WOMAN has been cleared of owning two dogs dangerously out of control after a man was injured.
Siwan Maclean, 52, had been out walking her two Jack Russell dogs and two lurchers near RAF Valley on Anglesey when the Jack Russell dogs were said to have jumped up and bitten a man last May 14.
But Llandudno Magistrates found her not guilty and cited inconsistencies in the prosecution case.
The prosecutor Sara Worland told how Kristian Lilley and his partner Sophia Folley had been walking their dog at Cymyran Beach car park near an RAF Valley runway.
As they returned to their car with their dog, a ten-month-old Border Collie called Scobi, Mr Lilley told the court that three Jack Russell dogs approached them.
The court heard they were “very well built and muscular” for their breed and one started to bite Scobi.
“It was making me really uncomfortable. My dog was terrified,” he told the court.
Mr Lilley, 30, picked up his dog and asked the Jack Russells’ owner - Siwan Maclean - who was about 50 metres away by her own car and chatting to another motorist - to come and collect her dogs.
But Mr Lilley said three Jack Russells “escalated their aggression” and two of them jumped up and bit him on the arm and back.
He said at one stage “they were hanging their whole body weight on my back.”
He said he began shouting to Ms Maclean: “Get your f ****** dogs off me!” over and over again.
His partner Ms Folley told the magistrates she began to cry.
“I was begging her (Ms Maclean) ‘Please can you call your dogs?’ - I was desperate. I think Kristian had two dogs hanging off his jacket.
“But she (Ms Maclean) seemed unbothered. I was shocked.”
Another man arrived and pushed the Jack Russells away.
Ms Folley added: “She (Ms Maclean) just seemed very irritated and said it was because you had picked Scobi up that this situation had happened. But I knew Kristian had picked Scobi up because he wanted to get him out of harm’s way.”
Ms Maclean ushered her dogs into her Vauxhall Astra and drove away. Mr Lilley and Ms Folley sat in their van “in shock” but they had noted Ms Maclean’s registration number and later contacted police.
They drove to the A&E department of Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor where Mr Lilley was treated for a superficial wound to his back, he told the court.
But in her defence Ms Maclean, of Llanfair-yn-neubwll, criticised the reaction to the incident.
In cross examination, Ms Maclean told the prosecutor: “I think Mr Lilley was making such a lot of noise and swearing that a member of the public could be forgiven for thinking someone had been murdered.”
As for Ms Folley, Ms Maclean told the court: “I was just amazed that she was hysterical.”
When the other man came along to intervene, Ms Maclean said he was “louder and more berserk than Mr Lilley”.
She said: “The owners were inexperienced with dogs and lifted the puppy up which started to make the situation worse.”
She said her dog tried to follow it up. She saw it “jumping playfully once.”
“It was just an unfortunate incident that escalated due to how they overreacted.”
Her solicitor Andrew Scott said his client is very experienced with animals, having grown up with horses and dogs.
He asked the magistrates: “Is it right to suspect that one or two dogs were hanging off the back of Mr Lilley and that she would have done nothing? That’s inconceivable.”
Magistrates chairman Angeline Lawson said there were disputed facts in the case including how the couple thought there were five dogs and the defendant only owns four.
Also there had been no medical evidence of any arm injuries.
Ms Lawson said: “You stated you put your dogs on their leads in a public area due to the possibility that you may come across members of the public. You did fail to carry out this precautionary measure.
“(But) we do have reasonable doubts. We do not believe your dogs were dangerously out of control. We therefore find you not guilty.”
After her acquittal, Ms Maclean said: “It was a non incident. I have not done anything wrong.”