Robert Gaskell was left with a scar “a centimetre from his jugular vein” after a American bulldog attacked him from behind
Robert Gaskell, who was bitten by a cross breed American bulldog owned by Demi Fitzpatrick(Image: Robert Gaskell)
A man savaged by a dog while carrying out work in a mum’s kitchen claimed he had previously been warned “not to look at it as it would go for me”. Business owner Robert Gaskell was left with a “V-shaped scar just a cm from his jugular vein” when a cross breed American bulldog latched onto his cheek while the dog’s owner, Demi Fitzpatrick, tried on a dress in the upstairs of her Kirkby house.
Mr Gaskell was carrying out work in the kitchen when the dog, called Capone, “bounded down the stairs” and “locked its jaws” onto his left cheek before twice biting him to the arm. The attack only ended when Fitzpatrick managed to haul the dangerous dog away from him.
Mr Gaskell told the ECHO: “I did not know the dog had escaped until it was next to me as I turned my head, when I felt a presence around me, it was already lunging at me. I did not hear it coming down the stairs as she was also coming down the stairs, it sounded like a herd of elephants. She did not try to warn me or shout the dog’s name.”
He continued: “I had completed work for Demi 18 months prior to this at her old property. As I arrived to start work, she told me the dog was in the bedroom and if it escaped to get up my ladder quickly and not to look at it as it would go for me.
“Stupidly, I agreed to take on work at the new address, where the dog was initially in the back garden but was moved upstairs, while she did this she asked me to step out of the front door for my safety.”
Mr Gaskell told the ECHO: “The attack lasted around 90 seconds. Demi arrived and tried to pull the dog off me almost immediately. When it let go of my face it bit my arm twice before she managed to drag it away. She was in the living room with the dog, on the phone in hysterics shouting ‘he’s just attacked the fella’ over and over.”
Mr Gaskell said the dog attack differed from Fitzpatrick’s account of events, with the owner telling police that the “usually friendly dog” had been “triggered by shouting” by the workman. Mr Gaskell said he was sitting cross-legged on the floor with his back to the stairs when he was attacked by Capone.
He claimed: “I did not instigate charges being pressed, the police told me that she and the dog were already known to them and would press charges with or without my blessing. I am now in a position where I am being made out to have provoked the dog which harms my character and potentially further hurts my business and livelihood.”
Robert Gaskell, who was bitten by a cross breed American bulldog owned by Demi Fitzpatrick(Image: Robert Gaskell)
Mr Gaskell was taken to Aintree University Hospital with a series of wounds. He told Liverpool Magistrates’ Court this week: “I’ve always had a happy go lucky, cheeky personality. Now, I hardly recognise myself. I feel like I’m living on borrowed time. I’m now scared of dogs, which I was not fearful of before.
“I have flashbacks and nightmares. I’m nervous entering customers’ homes, or even friends and family’s, when they have dogs. I have physical and mental scars, but I don’t want to be the reason a dog is destroyed. Is it the dog’s fault or the owner’s?”
Fitzpatrick admitted one count of being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog causing injury. She was seen in tears and wiping her eyes with a tissue at times during the hearing before she was fined £120 and told to pay £300 in compensation, court costs of £85 and a £48 victim surcharge.
Magistrates also imposed a destruction order on Capone, which can be appealed at the crown court. Sentencing, panel chairman Lee McGaw said: “We need to consider whether the dog does constitute a danger to public safety. We have to consider its temperament and past behaviour and whether you are fit and proper person.
“Even though there are no recent incidents with Capone, you were aware that you needed to place him in a room out of the way when you had a workman in your home. But you did not ensure that those measures were adequate. You were in another room trying on a dress. Capone escaped and attacked this workman.
Demi Fitzpatrick outside Liverpool Magistrates’ Court(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“We have taken into account that the dog expert thinks Capone needs to be adequately restricted, when visitors are present, with a muzzle or placed into a cage. We do not consider you to be a fit and proper person to care for and control Capone. Therefore, we do make a destruction order.”
Mr Gaskell said he was unable to work for 12 days in the aftermath of the incident and could not complete a “lucrative job”, resulting in him missing out on £9,000 in wages. He claimed Capone was not insured so routes of reclaiming lost earnings had been closed.
He added: “I would love to use this platform to advocate for mandatory dog insurance. Not for all dogs, just the ones capable of causing serious harm…This is a black hole that the government allows to exist, victims of dog attacks across the country are failed by the system consistently.”