Savaged as he played
My innocent littl’un was just out having fun on his bike...
Steph Carr, 26, Chester-le-street
As I was loading up the car with shopping, I turned to the kids in their buggy.
‘Off we go home!’ I smiled.
It was 24 September last year, and my daughters Sophia, then 2, and Amelia, 5 months, had come along to the supermarket with me.
Just like every Sunday, my eldest daughter Emily, then 7, and son Jay Jay, 5, had gone to my mother-in-law’s house for lunch.
I strapped Sophia and Amelia into the car and got in myself.
But just before I started the engine, the kids’ nana called me on my mobile.
‘Jay Jay’s been bitten by a dog,’ she said frantically.
She explained that they’d had to call an ambulance. ‘I’ll be right there,’ I told her. My mind raced with worry as I drove to her house.
‘It must be serious if they called an ambulance for a dog bite,’ I worried.
But I wasn’t prepared for the scene I found when I arrived.
People were crowded round outside my mother-in-law’s home – and walking inside, I gasped in horror.
Jay Jay was covered in blood, screaming in pain.
‘What happened?’ I gasped as I knelt down to put my arms around him. There was a massive gash on the back of his head, oozing with blood, and a large cut on his right arm. Terrifyingly, Jay Jay was falling in and out of consciousness, his eyes rolling. Shaking, his nana explained he and Emily had been playing outside on their bikes when they went a few doors down to see if their friend wanted to come out and join them. ‘I was watching them from the door,’ she said. They’d knocked on their friend’s front door, which was opened by a man named Keith Collins, 58. Keith didn’t live there but was from the area, and I’d known him for a few years. He was at the house to look after the family’s two German shepherds while they were on holiday abroad. After he told Emily and Jay Jay that their friend was away, the kids turned to get back on their bikes. But suddenly the front door opened again, and out rushed the two massive, snarling dogs. They charged towards Jay Jay and jumped on his back, throwing him forward until he hit his head on the concrete. Then they set about attacking him. The male dog bit into my poor boy’s head while the female tore into his arm.
Emily screamed in terror and ran off to get help while Keith desperately tried to wrestle the beasts off of Jay Jay.
The vicious attack lasted just over a minute, and Keith managed to get the dogs back inside the house.
Having seen the whole thing, my mother-in-law rushed over to Jay Jay to carry him back to her house while her partner dialled 999.
‘Oh my God,’ I wept as she told me.
I felt panic rise. Where the hell was the ambulance?
Rushing outside, I looked beyond the groups of concerned bystanders to see Keith smoking a cigarette.
Suddenly I saw red and charged towards him.
‘How could you let this happen?’ I screamed as my mother-in-law held me back.
‘Now’s not the time, you need to be with Jay Jay,’ she soothed.
His dad arrived just before the ambulance.
And while paramedics started working on Jay Jay a police car turned up too.
Apparently the police are sent out automatically when an ambulance is called for a dog attack.
I gave a brief statement before jumping in the ambulance with Jay Jay to go to the University Hospital of North Durham.
I fought back tears as he was checked by doctors.
‘He’s lucky to be alive,’ I was told.
His little body was covered
in bruises, there were claw marks on his chest and countless puncture wounds on his right arm.
A chunk of flesh had actually been ripped from his arm between his wrist and elbow.
If he hadn’t been wearing his coat at the time it could’ve been more.
The most severe injury was the huge arrow-shaped gash at the back of his head.
He was taken into surgery to clean and stitch up his wounds.
During the three-hour op the police called me.
The officer explained that the dogs had been seized.
The next day, the dog owners returned, and agreed to having them put to sleep. ‘Good,’ I thought. Don’t get me wrong, I love animals and take no pleasure in a dog’s death, but surely these were too dangerous to be around people. My son was proof of that. Jay Jay was discharged after two days in hospital, but I knew it would take much longer for him to get over the psychological damage from the experience.
Keith was told to report to the police station and was charged with being in charge of a dog which caused injury while being dangerously out of control.
Pleading guilty, he appeared
at Durham Crown Court this 16 January. Facing him in court was tough, but I was determined to go.
The court heard that Keith had let the dogs out into the garden to let them exercise and go to the loo when they made a beeline for Jay Jay.
Keith admitted to not being in good health at the time, and that he shouldn’t have been in charge of such big dogs.
I was told the sentence could be between two to five years, and I was hoping for the maximum. But on 9 February, Keith Collins was given a six-month suspended sentence, with 15 days of probation-supervised rehabilitation activity days as well as a £115 victim surcharge. I was horrified. It was basically a slap on the wrist.
But it’s not over for Jay Jay, now 6.
Once a bubbly, energetic little boy, he became quiet, timid and clingy.
He loved playing football and trampolining, but now he’s frightened of damaging his head.
And he completely melts down if we ever see a dog on the street.
No matter how small the pooch, he’ll suffer dreadful panic attacks.
My little boy suffers every day, while Keith can just go on as normal.
How is that fair?
I wasn’t prepared for the scene I found when I arrived...