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Boy (12) ‘thought he was going to die’ after dog owner grabbed him by throat in park

The accused man (51) had denied the attack, claiming the victim had spat in

his face, and that he only put his hand out to fend him off.

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An enraged dog owner grabbed a 12-year-old boy by the throat and began to choke him, following a clash between their dogs while walking in a south Dublin park.

The boy said he “thought he was going to die” as the man throttled him after the confrontation between their dogs.

The accused man (51) had denied the attack, claiming the victim had spat in his face, and that he only put his hand out to fend him off.

Finding him guilty, Judge John Hughes adjourned the case for a victim-impact statement.

Dublin District Court heard the man and boy encountered each other in a park in south Dublin in June 2021.

The boy’s dog was off the leash when it met the accused’s smaller dog around a corner, and the court heard “all hell broke loose”.

The boy said the man screamed at him as he put the leash back on his dog. He said he repeatedly told the accused he was only 12.

“He said: ‘I don’t give a f**k if you’re 12 or not, get your brother, get your dad, I’ll kill them all,’” said the boy.

After he left, the boy saw him again nearby.

“He ran over… he picked me up and started choking me,” he said. “I was crying, I was really scared, I thought I was going to die. I thought this fella was going to choke me to death.”

He said the accused “pushed his throat in” for around five seconds, it felt “very sore” and he “couldn’t breathe”.

The accused then threw him onto the ground and ran off, the boy added.

Cross-examined by defence barrister Lydia Daly, the boy accepted he should have had his dog on a leash.

He recalled calling the man a “rapist and a paedophile”, but said this was in the second encounter when he was attacked.

The boy’s mother told the court when she saw the accused on the street later and took a photo of him, he started shouting at her.

Garda Ashley Hynes was passing and intervened when she saw the accused acting “hyper” and using an “aggressive tone” to the victim’s mother.

The accused said in evidence after the dogs met, he only told the boy his dog “should be on a lead and muzzled”.

After, he said the boy shouted: “Big f**king man, picking on a kid.”

He said the boy shouted “f**k you” and when he walked back over to him, the victim went to run off and fell over the lead. He claimed the boy bounced up and down with his fists up, called him “a prick and a rapist” and spat in his face.

“I just put my hand out to protect myself from further attack… I didn’t grab his neck or any part of him,” the accused said.

In cross-examination, he accepted he was annoyed, that he went to “reprimand” the boy and it “perhaps wasn’t the best decision” – but denied screaming at him or assaulting him.

Judge Hughes said there was a conflict of evidence but found the prosecution proved its case.