CWU Responds To Consultation On Dangerous Dogs Offences Sentencing The Union has issued a formal response to the Sentencing Council's public consultation on its proposed guideline to judges and magistrates with regard to the sentencing of owners of dangerous dogs in the event their dog attacks and injures anyone. In the 18 page document, written by Dave Joyce the CWU National Health, Safety & Environment Officer, the Union's response deals with not only the inconsistent sentencing handed down by maghistrates and judges, but also provides the evidence and statistics involved in the [prpoblem of dangerous doig attacks in the UK. It provides several paragraphs on the CWU's 'Bite-Back' Campaign, the 23,000 Postal Workers Attacked By Dogs in the last 5 Years, and even lists the names of those killed by dogs. In the Overview chapter, the Union argues: "The CWU believes that appropriate sentencing for Dangerous Dogs Offences cases is urgently needed in the UK, along with the regularised, consistent use of ancillary orders. Presently the CWU does not believe that in all cases, the penalties handed down by the Courts, fit the crime! Higher compensation orders are also required along with a victims surcharge to aid the victims of dog attack crimes and to provide some level of reparation to redress the damage caused to the injured victim. In summary the sentencing council needs to address poor, inconsistent and inadequate sentencing in Dangerous Dogs Offences cases. New Guidance to the Courts, Magistrates and Judges should involve the consistent use of the following:- (A) Disqualification orders which disqualify the offending dog owner or person responsible for the dog from keeping dogs for a specified period of time. Where injuries occur, the CWU believe this should be for a period of 10 year to life. In the conclusion to its response to sentetncing guidelines, the CWU says: "The outcome of the new Sentencing Council guideline must be to ensure that Judges make best use of their powers so that irresponsible dog owners who put the public at risk can be punished and banned from keeping dogs. Genuinely dangerous dogs can be put down and compensation should be paid to victims by offenders." The final two paragraphs of the Unions conclusion are perhaps the most important of all those within the 18 page document: "In our view sentences need to significantly increase in order to become an
effective deterrent. The CWU has found an unacceptable leniency applied to
Dangerous Dogs cases in general and inconsistency which is equally a problem
needing to be addressed. The full CWU response to the consultation exercise can be downloaded as a pdf document here Source: CWU |
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