A boy of two was in a coma last night after his ear and nose were bitten off in a vicious attack by a neighbour’s dog.
Keiron Guess was playing outside his house when the Staffordshire bull terrier savaged him. He was saved by his grandfather, who was also injured.
Astonishingly, the man responsible for the dog suggested Keiron would not have been mauled if his parents had kept a closer eye on him.
Garfield King said: ‘If you’re a parent you have to look after your children 24 hours a day. If it wasn’t a dog it could have been a paedophile.’
The toddler had seven hours of emergency reconstructive surgery and last night his parents, Stacey and Anthony, were at his bedside.
Keiron’s grandfather Shaun Leonard said the boy was playing in a lane behind the family home in Swindon, Wiltshire, at 6pm on Sunday when the dog burst out of Mr King’s back yard.
Mr Leonard said: ‘The dog took his left ear off and bit off most of his nose. His left eye was hanging out.
‘He has injuries from his forehead right down to his chin. There were holes in his face. The dog also took a chunk out of the back of his head.’
Keiron’s 49-year-old paternal grandfather, David Guess, heard his screams and raced to help.
Mr Leonard, a lorry driver, continued: ‘He managed to pull Keiron on to his shoulders but the dog was still jumping up at him. It just kept coming back for more.’
Keiron was airlifted to hospital in Bristol, where doctors placed him in an induced coma after surgery.
His 22-year-old mother, who is pregnant and has another son, Kenzie aged four, with her 23-year-old scaffolder husband, wrote on Facebook: ‘Just waiting for my gorgeous baby. Just want to hold you in our arms.’
Mr King said he was watching the Jubilee celebrations on TV while looking after his son’s dog.
‘All of a sudden the dog went outside. I heard squeaking and then I had to go outside to check on the dog.
‘The dog was looking like he was playing with something. I thought the neighbours had thrown a dolly over the fence but then I saw it wasn’t a dolly because I saw all the blood. I’m still in shock now.’
Wiltshire Police said the dog was due to be destroyed on Monday but no arrests had been made. In September last year, a police team raided Mr King’s address, and an officer was bitten by a dog after the animal had been tasered.
During the raid a local newspaper photographer took a photograph of two dogs jumping at the glass door. It is not known if the picture features the dog which attacked Keiron.
Afterward the raid PC Mark Giles from Wiltshire Police said: ‘The owner was trying to control the two of them but they were trying to fight each other and get at us.
‘I had to deploy my Taser to try to prevent them from attacking but one leapt up and bit me even after I hit it in the mouth.’
Under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, if a dog bites someone while on its owner’s property, police are not required to take action unless the injury is severe or the dog is thought to be a danger to others. - Daily Mail