A pack of dogs mauled an 11-year-old girl and woman during two horror attacks, a court has heard. The animals tore and bit the terrified visitors to Coombeland Farm near Tiverton, Devon.
The frightened schoolgirl asked “Mummy, am I going to die?” as the dogs attacked her, while the woman had to be pulled away from the animals by her partner. The eight dogs red Labradors were owned by businessman John Hardy, described as a ‘successful man of considerable reputation’.
The mum of the injured girl claimed Hardy was ‘blase’ about the attack on her daughter. The injured woman said he offered her £80 to replace her shredded trousers, the court was told.
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Three of Hardy’s dogs have since been destroyed, DevonLive reports. Hardy, 75, admitted two offences of being the owner of dogs that were dangerously out of control and injured two females.
The defendant was handed a suspended sentence and ordered to pay each victim £5,000 in compensation. Exeter Crown Court heard how the first incident happened on January 3 last year.
A woman was visiting the farm to deliver hay. She was undoing straps from a trailer in the main yard when the pack attacked her, the court heard.
The dogs bit her legs, bottom and arms. Some were hanging off her and others barking, prosecutor Lewis Aldous said.
Mr Aldous said: “They were ripping at her rather than biting and letting go.” The woman’s partner managed to drag her away to safety.
He later told how he feared she was going to be killed. Hardy also tried to help, while a farmhand took the woman to a barn for safety.
The victim said she remembered her trousers being by her ankles and ‘blood everywhere’. Hardy told the woman he was sorry and offered her the £80 for new trousers.
He later phoned and offered compensation, which was declined. The woman suffered 11 wounds to her body, spent five days in hospital and needed two rounds of surgery.
She has been left with scars and has numbness in her leg. The woman said in a statement that she still suffers flashbacks and nightmares about the attack.
She is now petrified of them, the court heard. The second incident happened just over a month later.
A woman and her two daughters visited the farm to see a horse Hardy was selling. She was speaking to Hardy in the yard when the pack of dogs ran through the archway and toward one of the girls ‘like a pack of wild animals’.
They knocked her over and pinned her down, while two or three of the dogs repeatedly bit her. Her mum, sister and farmhand dragged her away.
During the attack the girl asked “Mummy, am I going to die?”. Hardy was described by the mum as ‘very calm’ and ‘somewhat blase”‘.
The court was told she did not hear from him again. The girl suffered 36 wounds to her body and bruising.
She needed a tetanus shot, while seven of her scars will remain for life. The child has since been diagnosed with PTSD and is now ‘really scared of all dogs’.
Her mum read a statement in court in which she described the devastating impact of the attack on her previously happy and smiling little girl. Three of the dogs, Percy, Billy and Oscar, have since been put to sleep.
The remaining five dogs returned to him with strict control orders in place. Hardy is currently in the process of selling his equine business and the large estate.
The convict said he was ‘shocked and appalled’ by what happened and deeply sorry. Sentencing, Judge David Evans said the first attack was prolonged and savage.
He said Hardy should have acted after the first incident but seemed ‘peculiarly unperturbed’ by the attack on the girl. Hardy was made subject to 150 hours of unpaid work as part of a 15-month suspended sentence.
The judge also made a contingent destruction order on the remaining dogs should he not keep them under proper control in future.