A loyal dog bit a man “more than twenty times” after he started attacking his owner with a baseball bat.
Leia, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, sank her teeth into Barzan Shekzade’s backside as he hit Marcin Pluta with the aluminium implement during a violent street altercation, reports Birmingham Live.
The fight in Smethwick, West Midlands on June 11, 2020 began when Shekzade drove past Pluta and “challenged” him over remarks he allegedly said to his wife.
Pluta — who was on a bike walking his three dogs — then crossed the road and punched Shekzade in the face through his car window, district judge Stephen Flint told Walsall Magistrates Court.
The defendant walked back across the road and began filming before Shekzade got out of his car with a baseball bat and crossed the road to to attack Pluta.
(Image: Getty)
Recounting how the dog jumped up to his defence, the judge said: “Whilst Mr Pluta fought with Mr Shekzade and tried to wrestle the baseball bat away from him, the dogs were jumping up, and Leia – the Staffordshire Bull Terrier – bit Mr Shekzade numerous times on his legs and around his buttocks area.
“Mr Pluta then managed to get the baseball bat off Mr Shekzade and he hit him with it numerous (times) on the shoulder, causing minor injuries.
“Mr Pluta then left the scene with the baseball bat and his three dogs. He himself had suffered injuries because he was hit with the baseball bat.”
Another hostile interaction between the pair followed four days later, on June 15, where the defendant approached Shekzade at a set of traffic lights and “threatened to destroy him”, said the judge.
Pluta, who needed a Polish translator in court, was charged with being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control and caused injury, assaulting a person causing actual bodily harm and using threatening words to cause alarm and distress.
The judge said he would “ordinarily have ordered the destruction” of Leia — but there were exceptional mitigating circumstances that prevented him from doing so.
He instead made a “contingent destruction order” which meant that Leia could only be walked with a muzzle and on a lead, must be accompanied in public by someone aged 18 or older and become “insured”.
Pluta was given a 21 week prison term suspended for one year for all three offences, and was ordered to pay £250 compensation to Shekzade, £620 prosecution costs and a £120 court surcharge.
He was also told he must carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and 12 rehabilitation sessions.
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