Woman passer-by 'blamed' by Alsation owners after dog escaped their Leeds garden and savaged her

The large German Shepherd was able to get free after the latch had not been put on the front gate to the property on Highfield Road in Aberford, attacking the woman who was walking by with her husband and their own pet dog.

Leeds Crown Court heard that the dog’s owner, 78-year-old Graham Riley and his wife shockingly tried to avoid blame.

Prosecutor Lydia Carroll said Riley showed “no remorse” during his police interview, while his wife had gone to the woman’s home following the attack and asked her what she had done to cause the dog to bite her and “showed no concern”.

The incident happened on June 22, with the victim later telling police that she knew that two German Shepherds lived at the address and would often bark when they walked past.

On this occasion, the larger of the two dogs – known as Bear – got out and went straight for the woman, jumping up and biting her left arm three times and her left thigh twice before running back towards the garden.

The victim was taken to hospital where she underwent surgery under local anaesthetic to clean the wounds and was given a course of antibiotics to prevent infection.

Days later the black-and-tan dog was seized and removed from Riley’s possession. Miss Carroll said that during his police interview, Riley “showed no remorse and denied the allegation”.

She added: “He did not believe the dog was capable of the attack, even questioning how the woman sustained her injuries. He believed the garden to be secure.”

He has no previous convictions, but admitted having a dog that was dangerously out of control that caused injury.

Mitigating, Matthew Stewart said: “He is 78 and never been in trouble before. It’s an isolated incident. There’s evidence of responsible ownership, owning dogs for 30 years. He fully accepts what happened that day.”

He said that Riley had bought a muzzle for the dog, despite it still being detained by the authorities, and had fitted a spring lock on the garden gate to prevent the dogs from escaping again.

A letter from Riley’s wife was also presented to Judge Andrew Stubbs KC, but he remained “unimpressed”. He said it “took her four pages to apologise” and then he roundly criticised the couple.

He told Riley: “You find it difficult to accept it was your fault, but that is the stark fact of the case. I find you and your wife’s attitude worrying and concerning and it was nobody’s fault but your own. Rather than making excuses trying to blame the victim, it should have been about how sorry you were.”

However, Judge Stubbs accepted it was an isolated incident after years of trouble-free dog keeping. He fined him £100 and told him to pay the victim £1,500 compensation. He made the dog subject to a contingent destruction order, meaning it will be returned to Riley, but will be put down if he does not keep the gate locked and fit the muzzle on the dog when in public.