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Man whose dog bit cyclist and “pulled her off bike” handed suspended sentence and ordered to pay almost £2,000German Shepherd (wikimedia commons CC Att-SA 4.0 by Jakub Hałun)

Man whose dog bit cyclist and “pulled her off bike” handed suspended sentence and ordered to pay almost £2,000

A destruction order was also placed on the German Shephard, who had previously attacked a person, though its owner says he will launch an appeal
by Ryan Mallon
Fri, Sep 01, 2023 16:45
35

A man whose dog attacked a passing female cyclist, biting her leg and pulling her to the ground, has been handed a three-month suspended prison sentence, while a destruction order has been placed upon the German Shepherd.

The cyclist was riding in the Glencraig Manor area of Antrim in September 2022 when Jaroslan Bednarek’s dog attacked her, pulling her from her bike and leaving her with “considerable injuries” which required medical treatment, Belfast Live reports.

The Alsatian, named Roxter, had attacked another person three years before biting the cyclist, an incident which meant that Bednarek was under court orders to ensure his pet was fitted with a muzzle and kept on a lead at all times in public places.

Following last year’s attack, which prompted an investigation by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Bednarek was charged under the Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order 1983 as the owner of a dog which attacked a person and for the contravention of control conditions already attached to the licence of a dog.

> Cyclist bitten by dog… and then abused by owner

He pleaded guilty to both charges at Antrim Magistrates’ Court in June, and last week was sentenced to a three-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years.

Bednarek was also fined £500 and ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation to the injured cyclist, along with legal costs of £322.

The judge also made an automatic destruction order concerning the German Shepherd.

However, the dog owner has indicated his intention to appeal the sentence, and the destruction order has been suspended pending the outcome of the appeal.

Following the sentencing, Antrim and Newtownabbey’s Mayor Mark Cooper said: “The Council places a strong emphasis in the investigation of all offences under dog control legislation. Incidents involving attacks on people and animals are investigated rigorously and formal action, such as prosecution, is taken, as demonstrated in this particular case.”

> Teenage cyclist left with puncture wounds after bite from pet Alsatian

The suspended sentence and relatively hefty fine – a result of the owner and dog’s past misdemeanours – stands in stark contrast to previous punishments handed out following similar incidents involving Alsatians and cyclists.

Last December, we reported that the owner of a German Shepherd who left a teenage cyclist with puncture wounds in Derbyshire was fined £140 and ordered to pay £200 compensation, a £34 victim surcharge, and £85 court costs after the attack.

Owner Patricia Williamson, who told the court that her dog suffers “anxiety” around cyclists having been hit by someone riding a bike as a puppy, was “apologetic straightaway” and “put the dog back under control” after it bit a 14-year-old cyclist in the leg.

Main image for illustration purposes only.

Dog
Antrim
Ryan Mallon

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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35 comments

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Hirsute replied to giff77 | 1 year ago
6 likes

I was cycling down a modal filter road only to see a bloke on one side of the road and his dog on the other by a tree. As I got nearer, it became apparent that the lead extended across the whole width of the road and was caught on the tree.

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SimoninSpalding replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
5 likes

I get this a lot on the country lanes I ride on my commute. Often the person nominally in charge of the dog has headphones on and is staring at their phone. Generally I am aware of the dog/ pedestrian at least 1/4 mile before I reach them (straight fenland roads) but the number of times I have to ask for them to control their dog and they are taken by surprise is incredible.

Having said that my main issue on my commute is the f*****g squirrels. They almost seem to want me to run them over. Why do they not understand their best defence is to climb a tree? Zigzagging down the road in front of a bike is really not a good survival strategy!

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David9694 replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
1 like

SimoninSpalding wrote:

I get this a lot on the country lanes I ride on my commute. Often the person nominally in charge of the dog has headphones on and is staring at their phone. Generally I am aware of the dog/ pedestrian at least 1/4 mile before I reach them (straight fenland roads) but the number of times I have to ask for them to control their dog and they are taken by surprise is incredible.

Having said that my main issue on my commute is the f*****g squirrels. They almost seem to want me to run them over. Why do they not understand their best defence is to climb a tree? Zigzagging down the road in front of a bike is really not a good survival strategy!

+1 on kamakasi squirrels ( calling Hawkinspeter) and +1 on the novelty rapidly wearing off of "let's get a dog".

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hawkinspeter replied to David9694 | 1 year ago
4 likes

David9694 wrote:

SimoninSpalding wrote:

I get this a lot on the country lanes I ride on my commute. Often the person nominally in charge of the dog has headphones on and is staring at their phone. Generally I am aware of the dog/ pedestrian at least 1/4 mile before I reach them (straight fenland roads) but the number of times I have to ask for them to control their dog and they are taken by surprise is incredible.

Having said that my main issue on my commute is the f*****g squirrels. They almost seem to want me to run them over. Why do they not understand their best defence is to climb a tree? Zigzagging down the road in front of a bike is really not a good survival strategy!

+1 on kamakasi squirrels ( calling Hawkinspeter) and +1 on the novelty rapidly wearing off of "let's get a dog".

Ah yes, the old Nintendo game

Avatar
cyclisto replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
0 likes

The problem is that as far as I know, everywhere in the world you have to take exams to drive a car but nowhere there is such an obligation to own a pet.

But in UK that has decent legislation regarding dogs, it isn't such a big problem, let's be honest about it, there are many countries where stray dogs roam with no problem or even protected by law.

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