A 27-year-old remand prisoner yesterday admitted in court that he had knifed a dog to death, but said that the dog had been turned loose on him and had bitten him; he was further remanded.
Leon Europe of Lot 6 D’Urban Street, Wortmanville appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday to answer a charge of cruelty to animals. He had been remanded to prison last week after he pleaded not guilty to two counts of unlawful assault.
The court heard that on April 27 last year, following an altercation with his brother and then with two women, Europe cruelly stabbed a female dog so as to cause it unnecessary suffering that resulted in its death.
Yesterday in court, Europe said that on the day in question, “Miss Ursula loose de dog on me when I went fuh see meh brother and it bite me so I stab it.”
He said, “I give de dog one stab to it belly”, which resulted in its death a short while after.
Owner of the dog, Ursula Dodson, who was also present in court, said she had not loosed the dog on Europe. However, Police Prosecutor Denise Griffith told the court that the dog was indeed loose on the day in question and that it had rushed to Europe and may have bitten him.
The magistrate then entered a not guilty plea for Europe and ordered that he be further remanded to prison. She transferred the case to Court 6 for April 14.
Last week Thursday when Europe appeared before Magistrate Robertson, he had pleaded not guilty to two counts of unlawful assault.
It is alleged that he assaulted Dodson and her daughter Anacience Cave so as to cause them actual bodily harm, on the same day that he had stabbed the dog.
Cave, who was in tears last week, said that on the day in question, she and Dodson were only acting as peacemakers when they had urged Europe to stop beating his brother.
She said when Europe had stopped beating him, he had picked up a brick and pelted it at her and it struck her on her breast. She said he then scrambled her and slammed her head into a concrete wall. But after being pushed away from her, he had grabbed Dodson and said, “big woman, wuh yuh want me to do to yuh?”
The two women eventually ran to their home, but Cave said Europe followed them and picking up another brick, pelted it and broke their glass windows.
She said that when he saw the dog, he kicked it and later took a knife and stabbed it several times which resulted in its death.
Europe had then disappeared, but was spotted some weeks after by a friend of Dodson’s who had informed her and she in turn contacted the police who eventually arrested him.
Dodson had told the court last week that the incident “has been traumatizing to me and my family and my grandson who was cut still gets nightmares.” She said that her grandson who was 10 years old at the time, was so frightened that he had refused to go to school and “when he would see this young man [Europe] he would urinate himself.”