‘I nearly had my head and face ripped open because of their dog’
An OAP savagely attacked by a dog has slammed the “insulting” sentence handed to its owner – who escaped jail and was ordered to pay just £500 compensation.
Jacqueline McGrew had to have her neighbour’s dog’s jaws prised off her in an attack that ripped her scalp down to the skull.
David Wilson, 57, walked free from court Wednesday in what 76-year-old Jacqueline said felt like an “insult”.
“I thought a jail sentence would have been the outcome of it,” she said.
Jacqueline had gone to Wilson’s house on 14 June last year but the Staffordshire bull terrier, called Kia, went for her as soon as she entered the garden.
The great-grandmother-of-two was bitten on her face, head, arms, hand and back. She needed surgery on her head, suffered a broken nose and the sight in her right eye was affected for a week afterwards.
Wilson later pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dog which was dangerously out of control.
On Wednesday, at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court, Wilson was made subject to a 12-month community order and sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to Jacqueline, which she has said is “an insult” and that she feels like she has “come off as a loser.”
Jacqueline, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for charity work in 2013, added: “I nearly had my head and face ripped open because of their dog.
“I know he’s got a community order but I feel like I’ve come off as a loser.
“This will never go away for the rest of my life and sometimes I see the attack in my head.
“It’s only early days as it’s not even been 12 months yet so it might fade away and get better.”
Before the attack, Jacqueline “loved animals” and even had pets dogs growing up. But now she has been left terrified of all dogs, even when they are on a lead.
She recalled an incident at an ice cream van where a woman came up to her with a dog on a lead.
“I didn’t think it was going to do anything but I held onto the van and thought I was going to be sick,” Jacqueline said.
“The man had to fetch me back inside, he kept asking me how I was and I just could nod at him.
“It was the shock of the dog being right next to be, even though it was on a lead.
“It’s something I might be able to get over but it’s just not that easy.”
Jacqueline and Wilson were “good neighbours” and lived next to each other for 30 years.
But now the mum-of-one says she “can’t be friendly” with Wilson or “think” about speaking to him.
Jacqueline, of Blackburn, Lancashire, said: “In years to come it might be different but I just can’t see myself talking to them.
“I just can’t think of how I would be able to go on every day being nice and friendly.
“Their daughter’s dog is at their house and it’s the same as the one that attacked me.
“The only thing it does it bark but it’s the barking that sets me off.
“They do bring the dog in quickly when they know I’m coming in but I’ve never had my kitchen door open because our houses face each other.
“I’m actually frightened of leaving my kitchen door open.
“The other dog saw what the dog did to me, so how do you know that it’s still not in his head of what happened?”
Jacqueline has also written to Rishi Sunak and has begged the prime minister to “do something about” the rise in dog attacks.
“There should be a law that states wherever a dog is going, that they have a muzzle and a lead on,” she said.
“I’ve even had people from Australia contact me and they’ve been through the same trouble.”
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