A WOMAN from Bangor whose dog repeatedly bit a girl in the city when it should have been wearing a muzzle has been jailed.

Lindsey Davies, 48, of High Street, was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment at Mold Crown Court today (February 20).

She had previously admitted being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog causing injury.

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Prosecuting, Laura Knightly told the court that at about 8pm on April 30, 2023, a girl and her friend were walking along Caernarfon Road when they encountered Davies and her two dogs.

As they passed Davies, one of her dogs, a Shih Tzu called Marley, bit one of the girls' left thigh after the defendant had dropped its lead.

Davies also appeared drunk at the time, and was drinking beer out of a paper bag.

The girl pushed Marley away but it bit her again, and continued to do so until Davies shouted at the dog to come back.

She then got into a taxi which drove away; as she passed the girls in the taxi, she shouted through the window: “I am so sorry, I’ll have to put the dog down.”

As a result of the bites, the girl sustained bruising, swelling and a puncture wound on the back of her leg, and attended Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor.

Davies was arrested on July 30, and told officers that she had Marley put down.

In a statement, the girl said she was “completely freaked” and began to cry when a dog approached after this incident.

She said she will “now do anything to avoid” dogs, which “makes me sad, because I used to love dogs”.

There is still scarring on her legs, which is “quite purple in colour”, and which makes the girl feel self-conscious.

Davies had previously been convicted of the same offence in November 2022, after which she was ordered to have Marley muzzled and on a lead whenever out in public with the dog.

Defending Davies, who had 58 previous convictions for 122 offences, Sarah Yates said her client had bought several muzzles but that the dog had destroyed them.

She had the dog euthanised in May, and has apologised to the girl and accepted responsibility for the attack.

Davies, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, unstable personality disorder and anxiety, “has tried to take steps to resolve this incident”, Ms Yates said.

With this in mind, she asked if the court could consider suspending her custodial sentence.

Sentencing, Judge Rhys Rowlands refused, saying that appropriate punishment could only be achieved by immediate custody.

He told Davies that she was “totally ill-equipped to care for and look after a dog”, and that Marley was a “nasty little dog which was capable of inflicting real harm”.