British police laziness results in a dead child

The only offences that really interest them are speech offences

A police officer failed to act upon intelligence about a banned dog which went on to kill a six-month-old baby, according to a report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Molly-Mae Wotherspoon died from severe blood loss after being savaged by a American pitbull called Bruiser at the family home in Daventry in October 2014.

Molly-Mae's mother, 23-year-old Claire Riley and the child's grandmother Susan Aucott, 56, were both jailed for two years at Northampton Crown Court yesterday.

Riley admitted owning a dangerously out of control dog and grandmother Aucott admitted being in charge of one.

The IPCC report, which looked into how Northamptonshire Police handled intelligence about the dog, said PC Claire Paul has a case to answer for misconduct.

The report said concerns about Bruiser's aggression were documented nine months before the fatal attack when Molly-Mae's mother Claire Riley took the pet to see a vet, who passed on details about the dog to RSPCA inspector Michelle McNab.

The vet had contacted the force on previous occasions about different animals and believed they had done nothing.

Inspector McNab was told by the vet Bruiser was 'extremely aggressive' and 'she had concerns for the children in the same house'.

Riley believed Bruiser was a Staffordshire bull terrier/mastiff cross breed, but the vet thought the animal was an American pitbull, which is banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

The information about the dog's aggression was passed on to PC Paul, but was logged as 'low priority' intelligence.

The details about Bruiser were passed on to another officer for action, but the report says the email may have been inadvertently deleted and PC Paul did not follow up this request.

The report said: 'PC Paul's inability to follow up and act upon this intelligence demonstrates that on the balance of probabilities she failed to take appropriate action to ensure an incident log was raised and that further inquiries were made in connection with this.

'This investigation recommends that there is a case to answer for PC Paul for misconduct.'

Another officer who was alleged to have failed to act on intelligence was found to have no case to answer for misconduct, the IPCC said.

Passing sentence yesterday, Mrs Justice Carr said: 'This was a tragic and totally avoidable incident. Bruiser was a large, strong and aggressive dog weighing some 33 kilograms.

'He should never have been living cooped up in a small house with a new baby, and the two of them should never have been left alone by Claire Riley in charge of someone such as Susan Aucott.

'The cage for Bruiser was too small and too flimsy for him. Indeed, he escaped it without apparent difficulty in order to attack Molly-Mae.

'There can be little doubt that Bruiser was a vicious and dangerous dog. He has been described by various professional vets as incredibly aggressive. A vet of 15 years' experience described him as one of the most aggressive dogs that she had ever encountered.'

Original report here


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