Warsop woman’s dog dragged teen ‘around room’ but doesn't know where it is now

Mansfield Magistrates court, Rosemary Street.Mansfield Magistrates court, Rosemary Street.
Mansfield Magistrates court, Rosemary Street.
A Warsop woman who let her son’s dog bite a teenage girl and “drag her around the room” doesn't know where the dog is now, a court has heard.

Dawn Birks was in charge of the dog called Drake when it attacked a visitor to her home on September 4 last year, said prosecutor Lucy Woodcock.

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Birks had gone to fetch a lead when she heard screaming and saw the dog had attached itself to the girl’s lower left calf.

She tried to pry the dog’s jaws open but only when a neighbour heard the commotion and called her husband was the dog forced to release her.

She was left with five puncture wounds and needed a tetanus jab and painkillers but there were no lasting injuries.

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Ms Woodcock said the offence has a starting point of six months in custody because “not enough precautions were put in place” to control the dog, identified in court papers as a “Bully”.

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Ian Pridham, mitigating, said Birks, who has no previous convictions, feels "incredibly guilty" about what happened.

She looked after Drake with her son, who co-owned the dog with another man.

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He said the dog previously seemed “OK” with the complainant and Birks had kept dogs for years without any problems.

After the attack she gave Drake to its second owner but police have been unable to trace him.

Birks, aged 44, of Watson Street, Warsop, admitted being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control causing injury at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

She was ordered to pay £400 compensation. A destruction order was made against Drake.