A man who confronted a bully-type dog owner after being savagely attacked in the street has unveiled its reign of terror..
Tom Bryant, who lives near Harringay, in North London, was left on "red alert" after a vicious attack outside of his home put him in hospital. He said weeks went by with no contact from police, despite the ordeal being captured on CCTV, so he took investigating matters into his own hands.
The journalist, who works for the Mirror, suffered nine "painful puncture wounds" to one of his arms and sees his "anxiety levels soar" whenever he takes his own pooch for a walk in the area now. But after trawling through Facebook groups, he managed to track down the owner of the fear-inducing dog.
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"I am always on red-alert, constantly looking left and right in the knowledge that the dog that left me bloodied and bruised is somewhere out there," writes Tom for the Mirror. "To be honest, I don’t blame the police, there’s now more pressure on officers than ever before, particularly in an area like mine where crime including stabbings is rife."
But the situation got him thinking that if police were not going to act he would "take matters into [his] own hands". After reading through hundreds of comments on the Mirror’s TikTok video about his CCTV attack he stumbled across one that said the dog owner lived in a particular pocket of Islington.
"After identifying the park closest by, I started trawling through Facebook groups, and found details of another dog attack, by a similar-sounding dog," he said. "I got in touch with some of the members and within minutes, bingo, someone got back to me. They recognised the woman in question."
He soon realised the dog had a long history of attacking people and leaving them in need of hospital treatment and spoke to two other victims who had report their own ordeals to the police including Charlotte, who was left "pouring with blood" and had to go to A&E.
The second victim, who was also bitten, lost their dachshund for 20 minutes after an attack, before it was found cowering in Tesco with two puncture wounds. But having spoken to these victims, Tom now had a name, address and even a picture of the dog in question and he planned to do something with it.
"Both victims had given formal statements and the police had a name for the alleged owner but the dog was still free to attack me more than two months later," he continued, as he prepared to face his "biggest fear" by waiting outside the flat and confronting the not-so responsible owner.
After she failed to appear for a dog walk that morning, he knocked on the door later that afternoon and had a brief encounter with her. She said: “That’s a terrible thing, I am very sorry to hear it, but I can’t help you… I have nothing to say to you,” before closing the door on him.
"As I walked away I took some comfort in knowing that at least she knew the repercussions of having her dog off the lead and out of her control," Tom added. "But this was not just about me and Monty.
"I’d also been speaking to scores of her neighbours, living in constant fear and who have repeatedly complained about her dog for months to the council. Many shared my concerns that a child could be seriously injured, or even killed, by her dog."
A Metropolitan Police officer later attended his home to apologise and Tom has now given a formal statement. Islington council called the incident " deeply disturbing". It said: "We’re taking legal action in relation to this dog, which we cannot discuss further at this stage.”
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