Sarah Regan represented Kelcie Reed for the offence of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control where death is caused. That offence, subject to the “householder defence” is one of strict liability. However, as confirmed in Robinson-Pierre (2014) 1 WLR 2638 there must be “some causal connection between having charge of the dog and the prohibited state of affairs that has arisen i.e. an act or omission of the defendant (with or without fault) that to some (more than minimal) degree caused or permitted the prohibited state of affair to come about. The prohibited state of affairs is…the dog being dangerously out of control, whether or not it injures anyone.”
The Sentencing Council Guideline for this offence has 3 categories of culpability but as death is caused there is no category for harm. The Prosecution submitted that the case fell into medium culpability relying on a failure to act on prior knowledge of the dog’s aggressive behaviour and a lack of safety measures taken in situations where an incident could have been reasonably foreseen. In support of the former, they relied on a number of previous incidents of a minor nature involving the dog as well as an occasion when the dog had killed another dog.
Sarah argued that neither of those factors applied and the offence was in fact one of lesser culpability. In respect of the first, Kelcie Redd had not been present for any incident involving the dog who had been owned by her partner. In terms of a lack of safety measure, the incident took place in Kelcie’s own home where Morgan had been staying for some days without incident. Of the second, it was the after effect upon Morgan of a seizure resulting from a significant intake of cocaine that caused the dog to react as it did, a situation that no one could have foreseen. Those submissions were accepted by the judge who sentenced Kelcie to 18 weeks suspended for 18 months with a Mental health Treatment Requirement. She was also disqualified from keeping a dog for 15 years.
