Dog owner whose pet tore off six-year-old girl's ear as she played in park is spared jail

The parents of a six-year-old girl who lost her ear when she was savaged by a dog reacted with fury yesterday after its owner was spared jail.

Gary Hindley, 56, walked free from court after being handed a 12-week suspended sentence and ordered to pay just £350 compensation for the ‘sustained and horrific attack’ in which his Staffordshire bull terrier bit off most of her right ear.

Yesterday the victim’s parents described the sentence as an insult.

The little girl was testing her Christmas presents – a telescope and binoculars – on a family day out to Epping Forest, Essex, with her parents and younger brother when the attack happened on January 21.

Yesterday, in a statement read to Thames Magistrates’ Court, the mother said: ‘The dog was on my little girl, standing on her, with his head buried into her.    Read Full