A 15 year old teenager who was seriously injured when his neighbour’s Alsatian turned on him has been awarded £2000 in compensation for the injuries he has suffered.
Christopher Woods, of North Lynn, Norfolk, was helping another female neighbour retrieve the escaped dog as she herself was too scared to go near it. Christopher managed to get a hold of the dog’s collar and was leading it home when it suddenly turned and sank its teeth into the boy’s right arm. As he pushed it away with his left, the dog released its hold and instead bit that arm. Although the frightened teenager managed to wrench his arm out of the dog’s mouth and regain his grip on the collar, Rocky (as the Alsatian was named) again turned and bit his right arm, this time moving to bite Christopher’s face when he pulled it free. As if this wasn’t traumatic enough, when Christopher then tried to run away, Rocky bit his leg, causing him to fall and break his arm in two places.
When he managed to get home, Christopher collapsed from the shock of the attack and his injuries; he was taken to Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he underwent a 90 minute emergency operation. Later in the week, Christopher had to have a further 5 and a half hours of surgery to have a skin graft to repair the damage done to his right arm, which had been split open from wrist to elbow, as well as having stitches to his left arm and eye. Not only has the physical trauma prevented him from being as active as he used to be, being a keen player of football and rugby, but psychologically Chris suffers from nightmares and a severely dented confidence.
The owner of Rocky, one Christopher Russell, has paid Christopher Woods his £2000 compensation, after admitting that his dog was out of control in a public place. Russell was also given a six week suspended sentence and was ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work. He maintained that such an attack was completely out of character for Rocky, who had never acted in a violent manner in the four years Russell had owned him. Unfortunately, the courts ordered the dog to be put down although Christopher Woods was keen to stress that such a decision was not their choice.
