A man who claims he battered his dog to death after it mauled a little girl handed himself in to custody yesterday.
Wayne McGrath had until yesterday to decide whether or not to appeal his four month jail sentence with an order that if he surrendered to custody, that would formally withdraw his appeal.
At the end of September McGrath was handed a four month prison sentence after he entered guilty pleas to being the keeper of a dog involved in an attack, and causing it unnecessary suffering arising from an incident on May 12 last year.
Annie McFadden, a pupil at St Patrick’s Primary School, underwent surgery and needed 80 stitches to her head and body after she was attacked by McGrath’s dog Patch, an American bulldog, after it got off its lead at Kinnaird Avenue in north Belfast.
The court heard how the large dog grabbed the schoolgirl by the hair and shook her as McGrath and another kicked and punched at it to break its grip and that at one point, Annie managed to break free as the men got a chain around it.
The dog broke free however and mauled the little girl again, leaving her with a puncture mark to her head and 15 wounds, bites or slashes to her body which required a three hour operation to treat lacerations to her front temple, shoulder and arm.
Officers took McGrath and the dog back to his home but when they called the next day to speak to him again, McGrath claimed he had bludgeoned the dog to death, caving its head in with a hammer before putting the corpse in a bin and setting fire to it.
Despite searches, the court heard that no remains were ever found.
