A violent criminal’s dog which he considers his “other half” has been spared destruction after biting a stranger in Brighton city centre.
Five-year-old Boo Boo, a brown Staffordshire bull terrier and labrador cross, bit Richard Sutton savagely enough to tear his clothing and injure him, Brighton Magistrates Court heard this week.
The attack happened afer owner Wayne Drinkell launched an unprovoked verbal attack on Mr Sutton on January 24 in North Street.
Yesterday Drinkell, 45, who has convictions for scores of offences including GBH, burglary and criminal damage, pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog.
He also admitted assaulting PC Read and PC Stewart when they arrested him later that day in Queens Road – as well as two public order offences and common assault of PC Marchant on February 16, possession of cannabis and abusive language on 2 March.
Defending, Andrew Foreman said the issues had arisen as a result of Mr Drinkell’s use of alcohol and running out of medication.
Mr Foreman said: “The dog was his significant other effectively. Without stability and without proper medication this sort of thing happens.
“All parties are willing to support him along that trajectory. He presents no threat.”
Mr Drinkell, addressing the magistrates, said: “It’s not as black and white as it seems. Really, it isn’t as bad as they are making out.”
Prosecuting, Pamela Ciesla said: “As the dog offence includes causing injury, and Mr Drinkell’s failure to intervene, the Crown were seeking a dog destruction order.
“That has been reduced to a dog control order with two conditions, that it must be muzzled in public, on a short lead rather than a flexi-lead and the dog must be insured and placed in another room when people come to the door.”
She said that after the dog attack Drinkell, who was then of no fixed abode, assaulted the two officers, spitting in the face of one and kicking another.
On 16 February, Mr Drinkell responded to a warrant for his arrest at Brighton police station, John Street, where he assaulted another police officer and was also charged with using threatening or abusive language to two officers.
The court heard that he lunged his head at PC Marchant and then insulted PC Vaughan, asking: “Is there any chance of having anyone else other than this queer c***?”
On 2 March, Drinkell was arrested again and charged with using threatening or abusive language. During a search, a small bag of cannabis was found on his person.
Drinkell, who now lives in Charlotte Street, Brighton, was sentenced by magistrates Teresa Blaxland, Fiona Levack and Camilla Gauge, issued a dog control order requiring Drinkell to muzzle Boo Boo and keep him on a short lead in public.
He must also insure the dog and keep it in a closed room when visitors are in his house.
For the other offences, he was given a community order for 15 months, made up of six months of a mental health treatment program, a sentence which included an uplift for the homophobic remarks.
He was also ordered to pay compensation of £100 to Mr Sutton and £50 pounds for each of the three police officers that were assaulted and to PC Vaughan.
In 2019, Drinkell, who has previously given police the names Andrew Thompson and Sergeant Andrew Psycho Johnson, was jailed for stealing a luxury watch, gold bullion bars, Bollinger champagne, and even a Christmas tree from businesses in The Lanes.
In 2018, he was convicted of smashing windows at Budgens in Queens Road with a golf club after his tea was accidentally knocked over by the store manager as he asked him not to beg outside.
It”s not the dog that needs putting down.
Hmm, I definitely agree that the owner is the issue here. Appears the animal was encouraged to behave this way rather than the animal being intrinsically aggressive.
Why reduce the destruction order? Dog bites human -> dog goes to the big farm in the sky.
What a deeply unpleasant human. I’m sure the residents of Kemp town are delighted to have him in their community.
He was jailed for more than 3 years in 2019 and seems to have survived without his dog
Wonder how much more abuse this fella has to do before anyone takes seriously.
Not surprisingly the police have given up. I think Brighton council love problems.
They have a fund going for everyone, if you don’t have a problem create one because the norm is a definite No No!
This man is clearly a disturbed individual. Whilst I would generally support attempts to get this type back onto an even keel, I think that leaving him at large may be hazardous. The general public should be protected from his ilk and perhaps a lengthy period of incarceration would serve the public interest rather better. I note the ‘uplift’ to his sentence for the homophobic remarks. In the circumstances this would appear to be spectacularly trivial when compared to his other offences.
Indeed…I wonder if such an individual can even be rehabilitated. I do genuinely come across people who are in my opinion so broken that they will never likely fit into society in any meaningful, or even simply peaceful, way. Prison tends to make people worse in one way or another as well. There’s frustratingly not an obvious solution to repeat offenders such as him. Long incarceration is probably the best option; I suspect he’ll be looking at that before long. I hope I’m wrong though, and he does a 180.
Putin out of our misery.