An 85-year-old pensioner has been found guilty of causing criminal damage to a Rottweiler which bled to death off an isolated country path after making contact with his car.
After Bernard Ward, of Asher Lane, Ruddington, was convicted after a trial, he was fined £300, ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge, costs of £1,395 and compensation of £2,449.99.
District Judge Leo Pyle said on Friday, July 23, he could not be sure Ward - who had been driving a 4x4 white SUV - had rammed the dog but he was satisfied the pensioner acted recklessly.
"It was unreasonable to drive in that manner after him (the dog)," he told Ward, who had denied causing criminal damage.
"I find, as a fact, there was a pursuit and, at the very least, it was reckless and, I'm satisfied, the defendant was guilty of criminal damage being reckless as to whether the dog would be killed or injured".
Dog owner Kerry Grinrod had been walking the Rottweiler, who was nearly three, and her nine-and-a-half-year-old Akita in Asher Lane on Saturday, June 8, 2019.
She encountered Ward in an SUV vehicle two-thirds of her way into her walk, Nottingham Magistrates' Court heard.
Ward had six words for her. Looking at her Akita, he said: "Put them on a ****** lead".
Ms Grinrod said they were not doing any harm and "we are just walking".
She said the vehicle then approached, went past her, and swerved significantly over, cutting across her and heading directly towards the Akita who was drinking out of a puddle.
District Judge Pyle said in his conclusion: "There was a deliberate manoeuvre of the vehicle which was aimed at the Akita".
This was before Ward's SUV made contact with the Rottweiler who had bolted and was running away from Ms Grinrod after the incident with the Akita.
As the Rottweiler and the car turned the left-hand corner, there was a crop in full growth which obscured Ms Grinrod's vision of the dog. She shouted his name and then noticed his body "rise up from the pathway" and "he was staggering".
"At that point was the realisation the vehicle had hit him", she had said. She watched her pet pass away.
The judge said Ms Grinrod had seen the vehicle carry on the length of the footpath and turn left and appeared to park up and was sat for several minutes.
"She was trying to attend to a dying dog," said the judge. "She was dismayed the defendant appeared to be watching".
The judge added that there was nothing wrong with the dogs being off their leads at that time of evening.
"The circumstances that evening did not merit an abeyance to the defendant's arbitrary command," he added.
Ward's pre-prepared statement involved him denying driving the vehicle at any dogs.
"He looked through the rearview mirror and believed no injury was caused to the dog when it ran in front of his vehicle and he carried on driving home, as he did not believe any injury was caused to the dog," said the judge.
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