Scott Sehman jailed for South Shields dog attack

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-45746857

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A woman whose windpipe was severed when a dog attacked her as she slept said she blames the man in charge of it, not the animal.

Scott Sehman, 32, has been jailed after admitting being in charge of the dangerously out of control Japanese Akita.

The dog attacked the woman's throat at a house in South Shields in 2017.

Surgery saved her life but she had to eat from a tube for six months, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The three-year-old dog belonged to Sehman's mother but he was in charge of it when it attacked the woman, whose injuries were photographed, in August last year.

The court heard Sehman's mother had told him to keep the dog away from guests.

Sehman, of no fixed address, had met the victim at a pub and the pair went to the house where the woman fell asleep on the bed.

She woke to find the dog, which was tied to a bedpost, had bitten her neck severing her windpipe.

She said the attack had been "horrific" and had had a "huge effect on my life".

The victim, who has not been named, said: " I don't like to leave the house often, and every time I hear a dog bark it makes me jump.

"I don't blame the dog, I blame who was in charge of it."

'Lucky to be alive'

PC Kate Dolan, of Northumbria Police, said: "This was an incredibly distressing incident for the victim who is lucky to still be alive.

"She was forced to spend more than six weeks in hospital, and the injuries she suffered were severe and long-lasting."

Sehman, who admitted being in charge of a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control, was jailed for 16 months and also banned from keeping dogs for 10 years.