Camilla’s cousin let wolfdog pet savage 4 victims
THE Duchess of Cornwall’s cousin has been fined £500 after his Czechoslovakian wolfdog bit two elderly ramblers, a jogger and a cyclist at his ancestral estate.
Dru Edmonstone shouted ‘get off my land’ as the dog latched on to each of the four.
He made ‘no attempt’ to restrain the six-month-old dog, a breed created in 1955 for use in military operations by Czechoslovakia’s special forces.
The animal tried to clamp its jaws on the female jogger’s neck and scratched her back with its claws.
Edmonstone, 46, had insisted that the dog, Sundance, was ‘just jumping up’.
He appeared in Stirling Sheriff Court in handcuffs as a serving prisoner, having been jailed for 21 months in February after admitting a ‘significant and sophisticated’ £60,000 series of benefit frauds.
In a further twist it emerged that Edmonstone is due to be freed in three weeks’ time under the Home Detention Curfew, a system introduced in 2006 to cut the prison population.
He changed his plea to guilty to the dangerous dog charge on Tuesday, the second day of a trial that began in April.
Edmonstone is the son of Sir Archibald Edmonstone, the 7th baronet of Duntreath Castle, near Blanefield in Stirlingshire.
The family has held its estate in unbroken succession since the lands were gifted by King Robert III in 1435.
Edmonstone’s great-grandmother Alice Keppel, Edward VII’s mistress, is also Camilla’s great-grandmother. The court heard that the attacks, at 2pm on December 4, 2016, had been ‘traumatic’ for Sundance’s victims.
Prosecutor Claire Rowan said jogger Alison MacKay, 46, her husband Euan, 58, who had been cycling, and Wilma and Thomas Torrance, both 72, were all repeatedly bitten.
The attacks happened on a track through the Edmonstone estate, on which the public were allowed access to the West Highland Way.
Miss Rowan said that when Mrs MacKay shouted to Edmonstone to call off the dog he replied, ‘No, get off my land’, and although he shouted ‘stand down’ when the dog began to go for the Torrances, ‘it was noted he made no attempt to put the dog on the lead’.
Mrs MacKay said in evidence that Edmonstone’s dog had come ‘bounding’ towards her, barking. She said: ‘It was jumping on top of me with its paws on my back and the top of my arms, going for my neck.’
Mrs MacKay said it also went for her thigh and her lower leg, leaving scratches and bruises.
The incident ended when her husband, who had already been attacked, put his mountain bike between his wife and the dog.
Mr MacKay said: ‘It ran straight for me, clamped onto my left leg, tore my cycling tights and threw me off my bike.’
Defence solicitor John Mulholland said Edmonstone, who had paid £2,000 for the dog, had returned it to its breeder without refund.
He claimed that the animal had been a favourite with walkers visiting a temporary tea hut Edmonstone used to operate on the West Highland Way. Mr Mulholland said: ‘Many of them wrote in the visitors’ book how lovely the dog was.’
He said Edmonstone would be released from his benefits fraud sentence, on a tag, at the end of this month.
Home Detention Curfew allows low-risk offenders mainly on shorter sentences to be released with an ankle tag after serving up to 25 per cent of their original tariff. They are then required to remain at home for 12 hours a day – usually from 7pm to 7am.
Mr Mulholland said Edmonstone ran a B&B before he was imprisoned and ‘intends to return to that, so he can pay a fine’.
Miss Rowan sought an order banning Edmonstone from keeping dogs.
Sheriff William Gilchrist refused the order. He said: ‘It was one incident, one day. It wouldn’t be justified.’
‘It was going for my neck’