BODYBUILDER TRIED TO STRANGLE DOG IN THE BACK OF POLICE CAR
He also punched officer during journey
POLICE officers struggled to constrain a ‘bodybuilder’ as he tried to strangle a dog in the back of a police car.
Magistrates heard how 33-yearold Michael Mccormack, was being driven to a family member’s house by officers with the pet after allegedly being attacked by his partner.
Officers say his attitude suddenly changed and he became ‘abusive and aggressive’.
He threatened to sexually assault the animal, one of the officers recalled, before he throttled it with its lead, causing it to growl as it ‘struggled to breathe’.
He then became involved in a ‘struggle’ with the two officers escorting him whilst traveling down a busy dual carriageway, after they had taken the dog away from him for its own safety.
They were forced to stop the car and use incapacitant spray to restrain him as they called for backup.
A warrant has now been issued for his arrest after he failed to attend his trial and was convicted in his absence.
On August 4, 2020, officers had initially been called to an address in Congleton, to reports of a ‘domestic assault’.
Mccormack’s partner was arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, prosecutor James Hudson said.
PC Jackson from Cheshire Police and PC Martyn Stone, who is no longer a police officer, offered to drive Mccormack to his sister’s address and he took the dog into the police car with him. He sat it on the back seat next to him with the two officers in the front.
Giving evidence, PC Jackson said Mccormack was initially “meek and mild” and was “very apologetic” about what had happened but he ‘became more and more aggressive’.
As he looked back, PC Jackson, who was in the front passenger seat, said he saw Mccormack “dragging the dog about” and “applying pressure to its neck”, initially with the lead but then also with his hands.
“He was making the dog suffer somewhat,” he said. “It was growling. It was clearly struggling to breathe.”
PC Jackson said he wrestled the dog from Mccormack and put it in the front passenger footwell as a struggle ensued with him.
“He was trying to get into the front of the vehicle,” he said. “He made threats. He was much bigger than I was. He was a bodybuilder. I was trying to hold him in his seat but it was a struggle.”
Mr Stone, the victim of the assault, said Mccormack was “making comments to the dog that he wanted to sexually assault the dog.”
He then said he could hear the dog “growling” and acting “as if it was struggling to breathe.”
“It seemed in distress,” he added. After the dog was taken from him, Mccormack became “very, very aggressive” he said.
He said he was “hitting me and pushing me on my shoulder” as he drove the police car.
He said he was forced to stop the car, get out and use his incapacitant spray in order to handcuff him after they had pressed their emergency button and called for help from other patrols.
Mccormack, of Woolston Avenue, Congleton, pleaded not guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and assault of an emergency worker at a previous hearing but was convicted in his absence.