The dog was destroyed after the attack, the court heard. (Representative pic)
A former couple in the United Kingdom have been jailed after their two-year-old daughter suffered a brain injury when she was mauled by an out-of-control family dog. According to the BBC, the incident took place in 2018 in Bradford. The girl had been left alone with a German Shephard, which had just given birth to puppies, while her mother and father were upstairs. She suffered multiple injuries, including skull fractures and bleeding on the brain.
The woman failed to call the cops for eight minutes after the horrifying attack, the outlet reported. Her former partner had left the two-year-old alone with the dog despite an earlier warning not to.
Following the incident, the girl was rushed to a hospital where she underwent significant surgery to drain a bleed on her brain, The Sun reported. Doctors also found that the toddler had bruising on shoulders, back, legs and arms that were unlikely to have been caused by the dog attack.
The woman admitted to two child cruelty charges and the Bradford Crown Court sentenced her to 18 months in jail. Her ex-partner, on the other hand, has been jailed for a year.
The court heard how a family key worker had previously warned the mother not to leave their two dogs alone with the children. However, on the day of the attack, the child was mauled by the German Shepherd after being left unattended downstairs by the man.
When the police visited the house, they reportedly found it was messy, unclean and had an overpowering smell of urine. According to the BBC, the couple were also found to have taken cocaine and amphetamine. They had been exercising their parental responsibilities with drugs in their system, prosecutors said.
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A paediatrician concluded that the young girl had been subjected to "severe neglect" before the attack. "She could have died had she not received prompt medical attention," they said.
"You failed to stay with [the child] when there were those dogs in the house and you failed to protect her from them. Appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate imprisonment," Recorder Patrick Palmer said while passing the sentence.
The dog was destroyed after the attack, the court heard.