‘Irresponsible’ dog owner who ignored requests to put his pet on a lead before it mauled six-year-old boy’s face at children’s Halloween party is ordered to pay nearly £8k costs
- Nick Humby’s Golden Retriever bit a six-year-old boy in a pub in Glyn Ceiriog
- The ‘irresponsible’ owner let his dog off the lead while he went to the toilet
An ‘irresponsible’ dog owner who ignored requests to put his pet on a lead before it mauled a six-year-old boy at a Halloween party has been ordered to pay nearly £8,000 in costs.
Nick Humby, 54, of Maybury Avenue, Glyn Ceiriog, Llangollen, admitted owning a dangerously out of control dog causing injury, after his Golden Retriever caused ‘extremely serious’ injuries to the six-year-old child.
The businessman’s Golden Retriever, Ollie, bit the child’s face after being let off the lead at a pub in Glyn Ceiriog, where a group of children were enjoying a Halloween party.
Humby was handed a 36 week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and told to pay £3,500 compensation, £3,500 kennelling costs, £700 prosecution costs and a £187 surcharge.
Judge Rhys Rowlands at Mold crown court in North Wales issued a contingent destruction order, under which Humby must take measures to avoid further attacks or face his Golden Retreiver being destroyed.
Nick Humby, 54, was accused of being an ‘irresponsible’ dog owner after his Golden Retriever bit a six-year-old-boy in a pub
The judge said medics at Liverpool’s Alder Hey children’s hospital had done ‘truly world-class’ work to treat the syoung child’s ‘unpleasant’ injury so there was now only faint scarring.
Prosecutor David Mainstone said the boy’s mother had taken her two young children to a party at a hotel where there were about 20 youngsters.
Humby later arrived with his dog and ordered a pint, at which point he let it off the lead and allowed it to wandered around.
The attack happened while the six-year-old boy’s mother went to pick up her partner from work.
The youngster had tried to walk past the dog before it became startled and bit the six-year-old child’s face after being let off his lead while his owner went to the toiled.
The six-year-old victim was hospitalised and required stitches and antibiotics following the attack.
Judge Rhys Rowlands at Mold crown court in North Wales told Nick Humby to pay almost £8,000 in costs
Humby told police the attack happened while he went to the toilet and he disputed having been asked to put the dog on a lead that day.
He told the judge that eight-year-old Ollie was a ‘lovely family dog’ and behaved ‘totally out of character.’
Judge Rowlands said the dog had bitten a child in a function room at a public house at Glyn Ceiriog and Humby had been asked to keep him on a lead.
The judge said the defendant’s behaviour was ‘irresponsible’ and the consequences were serious. A plastic surgery team carried out treatment.
‘It is extremely serious,’ Judge Rowlands told Humby. ‘Serious injury did result from what was pretty irresponsible behaviour on your part.’
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