Cruf ts champ fined after ‘Lassie’ dogs attacked her neighbour
A CRUFTS champion whose ‘Lassie’ dogs bit a neighbour and left him fearing for his life was yesterday ordered to pay more than £1,100.
Daphne Iley, 78, was out with her five rough collies when they pounced on Anthony Dawson, who was walking his daughter’s Jack Russell-chihuahua cross, called Coco, a court heard.
Iley had become ‘complacent’ and failed to realise she couldn’t control five large dogs off the lead, prosecutors said.
The well-known dog show judge and breeder has won a catalogue of prestigious accolades over her career. Her website states she has won 18 Challenge Certificates, including two at Crufts, and has bred five British champions.
Iley denied having dogs dangerously out of control in a public place but was found guilty after a trial.
Giving evidence at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court, Mr Dawson said the collies ‘came at once’ as he was walking Coco in Fawdon last November, barking and ‘snarling’. He ‘lifted his leg’ to keep them back, but one ‘took hold of my arm’, leaving him feeling vulnerable and fearful for his life.
Mr Dawson attended an NHS walk-in centre where he was treated for wounds to his arm and hand. Passerby Peter Slattery said he picked up Coco to protect her.
Asked by prosecutor Brian Payne if it was possible the victim had been bitten by Coco – as alleged by Iley – he replied: ‘Ludicrous.’
‘I saw with my own eyes one of the collies attack Tony’s arm,’ he added. ‘I had to fend the dogs off because they turned their attention on me because I had Tony’s dog in my arms.’
Mr Payne suggested Iley had ‘grown complacent’, adding: ‘What she had failed to understand was five dogs off the leash were not going to be controllable.’
Iley said she had been walking two puppies and three older dogs, adding that she believed Mr Dawson
had sustained the arm injuries from falling on ice, as well as a ‘claw’ mark caused by Coco.
Finding Iley guilty, magistrates told her they were satisfied the dogs caused the injury to Mr Dawson as a result of being out of control. Iley, of Fawdon, was fined £935 and ordered to pay £200 compensation. She was also ordered not to walk more than three dogs at a time and keep them on a lead.
Author Eric Knight’s character of a loyal rough collie called Lassie first appeared in 1940, and went on to feature in Hollywood films and television adaptations.