Kerris Gledhill was attacked as she tried to protect her dog
Kerris Gledhill was attacked in the street(Image: Demi-Lee Glehill)
A woman is due to appear in court after a vicious dog latched onto a schoolgirl’s leg and sank its teeth into her skin. Kerris Gledhill, 16, from Norris Green, underwent surgery after the suspected XL Bully attacked her in the street.
Barbara Kukla, 37, of Beversbrook Road in Liverpool has been charged by Merseyside Police with owning a dog dangerously out of control causing injury. She is due to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, March 30.
Kerris was on her way home from a walk at Croxteth Park with her miniature dachshund when the “dangerous” dog reportedly came charging down Beversbrook Road in Norris Green and attacked her. Speaking to the ECHO she previously said the terrifying incident, which happened on Tuesday, November 25, at around 4.20pm, “traumatised” her.
She said: “I’d been to Croxteth Park with my dog, Mr Otis. We started walking back to our house, we were walking up Beversbrook Road, I had my headphones on. I noticed the dog in the middle of the street so I took my headphones off.
“I locked eyes with the dog, it was jumping on peoples fences. I stopped because I didn’t want to walk past the big dog. A little boy, no older than 11, came out of a house to try and get the dog back in – it listened to him until it was half way across the road then came running at me and Mr Otis.
“The dog picked my dog up by its harness and shook him. I managed to get the lead and it snapped, I shot my dog behind me and he hid under a car then the dog latched onto me.”
Kerris felt extreme pain as the dog’s teeth reportedly sank deeper into her leg. She said: “I just remember screaming and grabbing hold of my leg. It’s all a blur. The dog was shaking me like I was a toy, then it was pulling on my leg, it felt like it was pulling something out my leg.
“My mind was blank. I didn’t think he was going to get off me, my body froze. I thought he has taking my leg with him, at that point I honestly didn’t think I was going to have a leg. The pain was rising up by body.”
Kerris screamed for help and eventually the dog let go of her leg. She told the ECHO how she fell to the ground. She said: “I remember people asking if I was ok, I couldn’t respond. I picked my dog up and pulled myself along the railings to try and get away and ring my mum. I just remember screaming down the phone, it felt like a knife was being twisted in my leg.”
Her mum, Demi-Lee Glehill, 32, previously described how the phone call was the “worst” thing she’d ever received. She recalled Kerris screaming down the phone shouting “mum, mum, mum, I’ve been attacked by a dog.” Demi got in her car and drove to her daughter, who was lying on the floor, “lifeless”, when she got to her.
Mr Otis(Image: Kerris Gledhill)
Demi said: “My daughter was hysterical. She was grey, faint when I got to her. I was distraught when she called me, I’ve never driven so fast to get anywhere, it felt like forever, it was the worst phone call a parent could received. It was horrible.”
The mum scooped her daughter up off the floor and put her into the car with Mr Otis. She took Kerris straight to her mum’s house and phoned the police.
Kerris’ nan checked her granddaughter’s wound and after seeing the amount of blood, screamed for Demi to take her straight to Aintree Hospital.
Demi-Lee Gledhill with her daughter Kerris, in hospital before the surgery(Image: Demi-Lee Glehill)
The schoolgirl remembers slipping in and out of consciousness until arriving at the hospital, where she later underwent surgery on Thursday, November 27.
Merseyside Police confirmed a dog had been seized following the attack. In an update yesterday (January 8) the force confirmed Kukla had been charged following a dog attack “that left a 16-year-old girl with injuries to her leg.”
In a statement it said: “Officers were called on Tuesday 25 November at around 4pm to a report that a dog described as an XL Bully had bitten a 16-year-old girl on the leg as she walked her Dachshund dog along Beversbrook Road.
“The girl was taken to hospital with bite wounds to her leg which required surgery.”
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