A councillor was left hospitalised after being attacked by a dog that was already subject to a control order.
Susan Greene, 88, was walking along a public footpath next to a farm when the animal set on her.
The English bulldog, Yogi, attacked the 88-year-old wife of a vicar, sinking its teeth into the pensioner’s right calf, causing her to scream in pain.
She was able to escape the scene limping to her push bike and peddling away from the area with blood pouring from the wounds on her leg .
The attack took place in Clifton Maybank, Dorset (File pic)
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Luckily, a passer-by stopped to help her by wrapping her leg in a plastic shopping bag before driving her to hospital.
She was hospitalised for four days and left with serious scarring, with the injuries described as level 5 on the Dunbar bite scale, the highest level without being fatal.
The dog’s owner, Graham Habberfield, 62, a beef and dairy farmer in Clifton Maybank, Dorset, was not aware the attack had happened until police turned up to question him.
A judge at Bournemouth Crown Court has now ordered the dog be destroyed to protect the public. Habberfield, who pleaded guilty to being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control, must also pay Greene £4,500 compensation.
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Bournemouth Crown Court
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Speaking about her ordeal, Greene, who is the rights of way officer on Sherborne council said: "When I came back after my Sunday afternoon walk I went past the farm again and one of the two dogs came up behind me snarling away.
"Then suddenly I was viciously bitten from behind on my lower right leg. I screamed my head off. I managed to carry on to my bike and tried to cycle home using only my left foot, I was in excruciating pain.
"My boots were covered in blood. As I got near home somebody saw me and got me to hospital with my bleeding leg wrapped in a plastic shopping bag.
"The doctor who treated me said they had never seen such severe wounds from a dog bite."
The court heard Habberfield was supposed to have erected signs warning passers-by there were dogs on the property and had not done that at the time of the attack.
Verity Quaite, prosecuting, said: "Yogi was under a control order since February 21 last year. There was a prior unrelated biting incident in October 2022.
"There were various requirements including being required to keep Yogi under control at all times and not allowed to be on the lane outside of the farm alone.
"He was unaware of any gaps in the hedges and thought he had left them secure but accepted Yogi must have got through a gap. He was very apologetic and said he wished to pay compensation for the injuries."
The court ordered the destruction of the dog
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Richard Tutt, mitigating, said: "He believed he had secured his garden – the garden perimeter has a chain link fence for parts, double bank hedge, a wall and a gate.
"He put up a stock fence in addition. It’s obviously a very rural location. After the incident in April he discovered there was a badger run he wasn’t previously aware of. After that he has erected further fencing and to the knowledge of him and his family. Yogi has never been able to escape since.
"This isn’t a case where Mr Habberfield ignored what he had been told to do, he believed he had taken necessary steps."
Sentencing Habberfield to 10 months, suspended for two years, Judge Robert Pawson called the injuries "stomach churning" and said: "The photographs are not for the faint-hearted. They show three very serious injuries and bruising.
"She must be an extremely robust and phlegmatic character, having been approached from behind by a dog and bitten, she got back on her bike and cycled home, which is really quite surprising when you see the nature of the injuries."