Victim Katie Elliot was bitten down to the bone by Kelis Smith’s vicious dogs
The owner of two vicious XL Bullies who tore chunks out of a woman’s arm cried as CCTV footage of the horrific attack was played in court. Kelis Smith, 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of being in charge of a dog dangerous out of control causing injury after her pets, Kodak and Love, savaged the woman in the middle of the street.
Smith, of Brock Hall Close, Clock Face in St Helens, had let her three dogs into the communal garden of her flat at around 10pm on May 15 last year. One of the dogs returned, but Kodak, an XL Bully, and Love, an XLB cross, escaped out of a gate Smith knew to be faulty and wandered onto a nearby street, where victim Katie Elliot was walking.
CCTV footage from a nearby garden at 10.55pm showed the two dogs approaching Miss Elliot, 22, and attacking her. The mum-of-three was dragged to the ground where she was shaken, dragged and bitten multiple times.
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Prosecutor Cecilia Pritchard, at Liverpool Crown Court today, November 6, said: “Local residents had been alerted to the incident because they could hear her screaming for help, and a number of them came out. Despite numerous attempts to get the dogs off, it was not having any real effect.
“What some people said… is that they had tried to hit the dogs repeatedly with sticks – some of them had broken. This obviously didn’t cause the dogs – particularly the larger dog, Kodak – to desist, and that dog was still trying to drag the victim along the ground even after the intervention of these people. One of the males said when he was trying to intervene, the dog was also trying to bite him. Another said that despite hitting Kodak as hard as he could with the stick, this had very little effect and the dog continued to shake and drag the victim.”
Smith cried as the video footage showed the group of people trying in vain to stop the attack on Miss Elliot – with one person even driving his car at the dogs in the hope of scaring them off. Miss Elliot suffered serious injuries to her shoulder, chest and upper limbs, including a “massive degloving injury” to her right arm, which was bitten down to the bone. She needed multiple skin graft operations, and the court heard she continued to suffer from pain and mobility problems more than a year later.
The attack lasted around five minutes, and Miss Elliot was taken into a resident’s house while Kodak was given back to Smith, who had gone out looking for the dogs. The other dog, Love, was later found by police, and Smith was later arrested.
Ms Pritchard said: “She said that neither dog had been previously aggressive, albeit neither had been to any training classes. Kodak is an XL Bully, and Love is the offspring of Kodak and the other dog, Daisy.”
Paul Davidson, defending, said: “The defendant made full and frank admissions and was extremely remorseful about what had happened. She says to me it was made clear from a very early stage that the injuries were such that she may well face a prison sentence. To have that hanging over her head for a year has been very distressing for her.
“The defendant returned home from work to let the dogs out. It was late at night. She had, earlier that day, discovered the gate to the communal garden was faulty and had purchased a padlock. She hadn’t yet put that padlock on that gate. The dogs had never before shown any aggression. The neighbours had never complained.
“She’s extremely remorseful and tearful. She said ‘If I had known my dogs were hurting someone, I would have stopped it’.” He added: “Clearly, given the nature of the offences, the dogs will be destroyed. She concedes the destruction of the dogs is partly her decision and she doesn’t object.
“Despite the nature of the offence, the defendant asks that the court find that she is a fit and proper person (to have custody of a dog). There is one other dog, Daisy, who was not involved. That’s also the defendant’s dog and she would like to keep that dog and other dogs in future.”
Judge Ian Harris said: “This was a ferocious attack. The victim’s screams were hard by her sister, to whom she was speaking on her mobile phone just before the attack. On CCTV you can distinctively hear Miss Elliot’s screams. She has said she thought she would die.”
Sentencing Smith to 12 months in prison, he said: “Your behaviour, so far as control of the dogs was concerns, was criminally irresponsible. You took no steps to ensure they were under control and they caused dreadful, life-long effects to the victim.”
Smith, who appeared in court in a large, black sports hoodie, showed no emotion as she was jailed – but became visibly upset when the judge added that the dogs, Kodak and Love, would be destroyed. He also banned her from owning dogs for 24 months.
