Peterborough woman sobs as she tells jury how a dog bit a girl after she left pair in house

A Peterborough woman sobbed as she told how a dog bit a girl in her home after she left the pair for a few minutes.
Peterborough Crown Court.Peterborough Crown Court.
Peterborough Crown Court.

Georgia Sigourney was left with bite marks to her face after she was attacked by husky Dakota at the home of Sarah White in October 2014.

Georgia, who was aged 12 at the time but is now 13, needed stitches following the attack.

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White (37) of Hinchcliffe, Orton Goldhay, denies being in charge of a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control.

She took to the witness stand at Peterborough Crown Court yesterday, where she said she was looking after Dakota for a friend.

She said: “I started looking after Dakota the day before the incident.

“I’ve looked after a few people’s pets when they have been on holiday.”

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White said Georgia regularly used to visit the house, and said the teenager had described her as being like a ‘second mum.’

She said on the day of the incident she had taken Dakota for a walk twice, and fed her.

She said she had popped to see a friend, only expecting to be out of the house for a few moments.

She said: “Dakota was asleep on the sofa, and Georgia was on the floor in front of her.

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“I would have moved her (Dakota) but she was asleep, and I didn’t expect to be long.

“I was in the hallway of the house, when the door opened, and it was Georgia.

I asked what happened, and she told me. We were trying to stop the bleeding.

“When I got home, Dakota was in the living room, head down, ears down, tail down. She was very low.

“I gave her a kiss, and put her in her crate.”

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Roger Harrison, defending, asked her if she had ever seen Dakota do anything aggressive. White said she had not.

White admitted she had been in charge of the dog when Dakota caused the injuries. She also said she had never personally owned a dog.

Gemna Stokes, prosecuting, asked her why she had not put the dog in another room when she went away. White said: “She was fast asleep. I didn’t want to wake her up.”

Opening the case, Miss Stokes had told the jury, made up of eight women and four men: “The crown say the law is very plain. This is a strict liability case, There is no mental element to it - it does not matter if she said she didn’t mean it to happen.

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“Even if it is on a lead and it bites, it is still out of control. In this case the defendant was not even in the house.”

Dakota has since died in an unrelated accident.

White pleaded not guilty to being in charge of a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control at a previous hearing.

The trial continues.