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| Dog owner avoids jail over attack on girl, 11 | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Farhat Ajaz admitted the charges at an earlier hearing | |
| A man who admitted being the owner of an XL bully-cross that injured an 11-year-old girl in Birmingham has been given a two-year suspended sentence. | |
| Farhat Ajaz, 62, of Bordesley Close, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing at Birmingham Crown Court to three counts of owning a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control. | |
| The girl suffered shoulder and arm injuries in September 2023, during an attack by the dog, named Tyson. | The girl suffered shoulder and arm injuries in September 2023, during an attack by the dog, named Tyson. |
| Two other men were injured as they tried to intervene. | |
| It was one of a spate of attacks before the government announced plans to ban the XL bully breed. | |
| During the hearing, the judge was told Ajaz had also threatened to kill a former partner during a campaign of harassment. | |
| The court heard he had been subject to a lifelong licence at the time of the offences, after he had been jailed in 1979 and served 25 years before his 2004 release. | |
| CCTV showing the dog attacking the girl, was played in court. Further footage showed attacks on the men, Numaan Ahmed and Yousef Ahmadzai. | |
| Birmingham dog attack filmed by bus passenger | |
| Judge Heidi Kubik KC said: "You were out and about on the street with the dog, even at that stage not in the best of health and frankly not in a capable state of restraining the dog, who was not muzzled at the time. | |
| "It set about attacking three separate people including an 11-year-old girl. It was a horrific attack. She was undoubtedly and rightly terrified." | |
| The judge said the "vile, threatening and abusive" harassment of a former partner in 2022 on its own merited a custodial sentence. | |
| Ajaz had lung disease and cardiac problems, the court heard. | |
| The judge said: "Bearing in mind your guilty pleas and the health conditions that you now suffer, I take the view that it would not be in the interests of justice to send you to immediate custody.” | |
| Ajaz was banned from owning a dog for the rest of his life and made subject to a restraining order. | |
| Before Friday's sentencing, the BBC reported how the girl had been shopping with her older sister when she was attacked. | |
| She started to run but the dog grabbed her hand. After the animal was grabbed and let go of her arm, it went for her shoulder and bit her. | She started to run but the dog grabbed her hand. After the animal was grabbed and let go of her arm, it went for her shoulder and bit her. |
| Another 20-year-old man was chased across a garage forecourt before the dog attacked him. He had bite wounds to his forearm and cuts and bruises from being dragged. | |
| A second man injured by the dog also went to hospital for treatment. | |
| A witness, who stepped in to help, described how he attempted to free the girl from the dog's grasp, eventually succeeding. | |
| The girl was left with scarring to her arm and shoulder. | |
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