Owner of dog that bit child fined £2,000 for breaking court order

Friday 22 July 2022

A woman whose dog seriously injured a young child on Ouaisné beach in 2020 has been fined £2,000 for letting the dog roam without a muzzle, against a court order which served to save its life.

Elizabeth Ann Evans recently pleaded guilty to breaking the order, which was a condition imposed by the Royal Court when it overturned a decision of the Magistrate, who had ordered the dog’s destruction.

Ruling then that the original judgment had been disproportionate, the Court ordered that Annie must be kept muzzled and on a short lead whenever she was in a public place.

But on 24 May this year, the mother of the child saw Mrs Evans walking with Annie, who was unmuzzled and off her lead, on the beach at Petit Port.

Footage taken with a phone provided evidence for the prosecution, when Mrs Evans recently appeared before Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu.

Annie, a collie-cross, lunged forward and bit the girl, who was two at the time, in May 2020. 

That September, after a day-long trial, the Magistrate ordered that Mrs Evans, who was 81 years old at the time, should be banned from owning dogs and Annie should put down.

However, that was overturned on appeal by the Royal Court in November 2020.