A “pub dog” who bit a nine-year-old girl is facing destruction after its owner admitted being in control of a dangerous dog today.
Hector, a 70kg caucasian shepherd dog, sunk his teeth into the girl’s face at the Long Man of Wilmington pub on a Sunday afternoon in May.
Today, Brighton Magistrates Court was told witnesses saw the girl, who was at the pub with her mum and dad, jumping on the dog and pulling its ears just before the attack happened.
A family member posted on Facebook afterwards saying she had lost teeth and had to undergo facial surgery.
The dog’s owner Matthew Reah had Hector on a lead while he queued for pizza at the Patcham pub.
He is now instructing a canine behaviour expert ahead of a further hearing in October to decide whether or not Hector should be put down.
Prosecuting, Julia French said: “The victim in this matter is nine years of age. On 7 May she was at the pub with her mother and father.
“Just before 5pm in the afternoon, the nine-year-old approached the dog to stroke it and the dog bit her on the face, causing a nasty injury.
“She had puncture wounds in her chin and lip.
“There’s no suggestion that the defendant could have foreseen what was going to happen. The dog was on a lead. But the girl sustained a very nasty and serious injury.
“The court must make a destruction order unless the court is satisfied the dog does not pose a risk to public safety.”
Defending, Mark Charnley said: “What has happened to the girl is extremely sad. But there is a little bit more to it.
“The defendant was indeed in charge of the dog. It was on a lead and a number of witnesses said they had no problem with the dog.
One particular witness said the dog was lying in the shade. He saw the victim running to the dog and jumping on it’s back and pulling on its ears.
“The dog gave a warning bark and bit the victim in the face.
“It’s the defendant’s case that the dog was effectively provoked.
“The dog is still with the defendant – the police never took the dog away from him.
“The PCSO’s statement supplied as present in the pub makes comments on the dog.
“He said, ‘I have only seen the dog in question once and would describe it as a large, very calm dog. I walked past it multiple times within one foot and at no point did it react. From what I have heard, the dog is regarded as a pub dog.'”
The court was told that if someone is injured, there is no defence of provocation to the charge of being in control of a dangerous dog, as it is what is known as a “strict liability” offence.
The hearing was adjourned to allow a canine behaviourist, Helen Howell, to carry out an examination of Hector on Reah’s behalf.
He was released on unconditional bail ahead of October’s hearing.
I’ve met hector. The dog is big and the owner has little control. sadly the dog will pay the price with his life due to his owners not understanding the needs of this breed. 🙁
Have met this dog on several occasions it attacked one of my dogs. The owner was abusive, name calling and rude. Both are extremely intimidating and aggresice
https://www.facebook.com/caucasianovcharkarescueuk
Hopefully the above rescue can be approached specialising in this breed. Poor Hector is in completely the wrong hands. Someone with knowledge might be able to turn him around. I hope it isn’t too late for him.
Very sad case to read about. Dog bites can be extremely damaging to a child’s face, and the ongoing issues to the young lady’s mental state the incident itself can cause. However, there is also a cautionary tale on how children should be taught how to interact with animals as well.
This is one of those no-one is truly in the right situations.
I don’t think personally it’s right that a dog can lose it’s life over the owner being a complete incompetent D***. I hope the dog is taken away from him and given a proper home where he can be trained correctly and live his life.
It’s terrible what happened and I’m not defending it but the dog wasn’t born like that, the behaviour has come from his owner.
Shame the child’s parents didn’t watch the child and teach her how to approach dogs and that she shouldn’t pull ears or sit on it……the dog will pay the price.
The owner should also of had eyes on the dog at all times so the child didn’t get to pull ears and jump on its back
Sadly poor dog ownership and poor parenting, the dog will pay the price…
I agree Sarah, there are a lot of failures from multiple people here that allowed this to happen.
She absolutely did not pull his ears, she asked if she could stroke him and the owner said yes!! We were there, please get your facts straight!
So was I!! So you failed to notice the child jumped on his back??? Should have gone to Specsavers!
Seems most people say she didn’t jump on his back or pull his ears. Your obviously a friend of the owner.
The child in question never pulled ears or anything. She is taught how to behave with dogs. Unfortunately part of this story is fake news.
The owner and the dog have history which i’m sure will come out in time, including recently.
The child in question would not have jumped on a random dog and would only stroke a dog with consent of the owner.
Other people would contradict the “witness” for the owner.
This happened at a family event and could have happened to any child present.
The owner should have had the dog taken away and banned from having dogs before this occurred.
This dog and the man owner have very bad reputation in shorheam from many experiences by locals who have come across them. The dog has unprovoked attacked and aggressively dominated many dogs along the Shoreham river path and the owner has been threatening, verbally and physically aggressive to dog walkers. Happened to me twice, but also to lone women walking their dogs who’ve been deeply shaken by encounters with both him and the dog. He is sadly incapable of training and controlling a dog like that, which given is a 70kg animal capable of inflicting serious damage, unless it’s sorted quickly there will be a risk of more getting inured like the poor little girl. Should be kennelled immediately. Urge the police to set up an appeal for people to come forward – this is not an isolated incident.
Hector has attacked many dogs and traumatised many owners in the patcham area over the last couple of years.His owner either says “he’s playing!!” or blames the other dogs. It’s terrifying when Hector goes for other dogs as he is enormous and aggressive . I have also heard first hand accounts from friends who were outside the Wilmington saying the little girl did not jump on the dog and they told police that at the time. I can’t understand why their accounts have been ignored. I don’t want to see Hector put to sleep, but at the very least feel should be kept on a lead and muzzled when out and about. his owner also needs some training on how to handle him in order to keep other people/dogs safe.
This dog and his owner have been traumatising dogs and their owners in patcham for the last two years. Many people have reported incidents to the police and dog wardens. He has attacked my dog several times. once the owner blamed me for having my dog on a lead! I know two people who were outside the wilmy on the family fun day, one of whom helped the little girl after the attack. She was definitely NOT pulling his ears or sitting on the dog when it lunged at her and bit her face.
I love dogs but I am terrified of this one and when I expressed my concern asking the owner to put his dog on a lead as Hector had attacked my dog on 3 separate occasions I got nothing but abuse with every swear word possible. If I see them I quickly put my dog on a lead and head as fast as possible in the opposite direction. My partner avoids them at all costs. We shouldnt have to be so frightened of meeting a dog in the local parks, river walks and countryside. I understand the dog is better with female dogs but he certainly doesnt like intact males and when he dominates them he is huge against most dogs and when he attacks its terrifying for owners and dogs.
This article is very untrue ! Me and my husband were witnesses to this attack and that dog was not jumped on at all !! Such a shame they only posted the statement of this man’s friend and not the many who saw what actually happened to that poor girl. The fact this dog lives opposite a school and escaped the other day to attack some dogs walking past is utterly dangerous.
Hi, I wrote the story and I just wanted to explain how we have to write court stories in response to some of the comments on the story.
Legally, we have to ensure reports of court proceedings are fair and accurate. This means we have to report what both the prosecution and the defence have said, which is what I’ve done.
There weren’t any witness statements provided by the prosecution, because the guilty plea meant there were no need for any.
I have a duty to report the defence’s comments as part of my duty to report the proceedings fairly.
It was a very brief hearing, and the report covers about 90% of what was said in court (the rest mainly being discussion over procedure and possible dates for the next hearing etc)
Now the hearing is over, I’m planning to write more stories where I won’t be so constrained by court reporting rules.
Fair enough Jo. If there could be a wider article accounting for all experiences that would be great.
Also, urge all people who have experienced aggressive behaviour from dog and owner to call non emergency police on 101 and report it to Sussex police linking it to the tragic incident in this article. That way it can all be considered as important history and context for how this horrible incident is dealt with by the police and the courts. It’s clearly not an isolated incident and whilst these two roam around (until October!!) there remains a high risk of further injuries and distress.
I appreciate that you were restricted by court reporting laws, but for the parents of the child to then receive criticism from others online based on the false narrative that the child jumped on the dog etc has added another layer of distress to what is already a very distressing situation for them.
Also, it’s really important that other parents understand how dangerous this dog is……the child did everything right, she approached calmly and asked if it was ok to stroke the dog, the owner said yes, and the dog attacked. This is what parents teach their kids to do, it’s what these parents taught their child to do and it’s what the child did. This needs to be made clear.
It’s becoming pretty obvious that the owner himself is aggressive and abusive to others, and always blames them for the dog attacking them (as is clear from the comments on here and the other article where the same dog escaped from it’s yard and bit 2 dogs and another person).
This dog is obviously not being given the right care and environment it’s breed needs, it needs to be re-homed in a more suitable environment were it won’t be a danger to others, a comment on here suggested a rescue that might be able to help.
I hate the idea of the destruction of any dog due to their owner not providing the care and environment they actually need, but this man clearly has no business being in charge of an animal that is capable of so much aggression.
If your dog has a repeated history of being aggressive to other dogs and humans, it should be at the very least muzzled when out in public. If I had a dog that I knew had been aggressive like that before, I would be extremely cautious about taking it to park, let alone a pub. Clearly this owner doesn’t seem to be concerned enough about what his dog is capable of.
This is completely a human failure on all sides… The dog is not to blame.