The youngest victim was five years old. The dog was put down by the police in September.
A mixed-breed dog bit three people, and the police who were called to the scene had to cuff the owner in Lahti last autumn. The events are reflected in a recent judgment of the Päijät-Häme District Court.
A 9-year-old boy was on his way home from school when he was bitten on the stomach and hip by a stray mixed breed dog that had been left alone. On the same day, the dog also bit an adult woman on her way home from a work placement, who also received a bruise around her hip. Her clothes were torn and she was left with teeth marks on her buttocks.
The woman went to her apartment, and her roommate went outside to make sure the dog didn’t bite the children playing outside. Once outside, the dog’s owner had been holding the harness and the dog had been barking at the children.
The roommate ended up calling 911 to call the police. In this case, the owner first started to walk away, but suddenly turned and started coming towards the woman. A dog bit a woman on the thigh.
The owner went out with the dog upstairs to knock on the doors of the apartments. Two men came out of the other door. The owner suddenly released the dog again.
The woman who alerted the police climbed to safety on a play stand in the yard, after which one of the men caught the dog.
The constable who came to the place caught the dog without any problems. However, the owner had put up a fight, and the constable had had to knock him to the ground and handcuff him.
A fine from the district court
In the district court, the charges were also read to the owner of the dog for the case in July, where the same animal bit a five-year-old girl in the stomach while on a leash.
The convicted denied that he acted according to the crime descriptions in all three charges. It appears from the verdict that the dog was euthanized by the police’s decision the day after the September events.
The district court ended up sentencing the dog owner for not guarding the animal in two cases and in the second case also for harming an official. A woman born in 1995 has to pay 50 daily fines, or about 300 euros. In addition, he is obliged to pay costs and evidentiary costs.
He was ordered to compensate the five-year-old victim a total of 400 euros for pain and suffering.
The judgment is not binding. It can still be appealed to the Court of Appeal.