The boy is wearing a body suit in court this morning – including a hood, which he pulls over his head before entering the room. There the six-year-old is supposed to report as a witness behind closed doors what happened on September 17, 2021 in Neuhausen. That night a Dalmatian attacked him on the sidewalk and bit off part of his ear.
The Munich District Court issued a penalty order for negligent bodily harm against the dog owner at the time, against which the 58-year-old lodged an objection. As a result, a hearing took place, in which the testimonies of the witnesses and experts clearly indicated that the woman was guilty. After hearing the evidence, she therefore decided to withdraw her objection. Means: She is now legally sentenced to a suspended sentence of eight months. In addition, the woman has to pay 10,000 euros in damages to the child and 5,000 euros to a charitable organization.
What was previously described in the seven-hour hearing is likely to be one of the worst ideas of all for many parents of small children. On the way home from shopping, her then four-year-old son fell off his bike on the sidewalk, the mother said in her testimony in court. After she had comforted the little one, she wanted to pick up his bike when the Dalmatian – until then he had been leashed in the adjacent green area – suddenly attacked the child.
“He was totally aggressive, pulled hard on the leash, bared his teeth and wanted to continue attacking,” reports the mother. And her terrified son screamed: “I just wanted to sit down and then the dog ate me.” When she examined the four-year-old, she noticed a lot of blood on his head. And: “that a piece of the ear is missing”.
The defendant, on the other hand, describes a completely different version of the events – a doctor from Munich, who had previously listened to the prosecutor’s descriptions without moving and with her eyes lowered. The woman in the dock looks battered, has dark circles around her eyes and a sunken face.
Before her testimony, which she recites based on a memorandum, she first takes a deep breath. Then the doctor says that the boy ran screaming towards her “Dalmi” that September evening, whereupon the dog on the leash snapped at the child, “but he didn’t touch it”. The boy’s injury, the 58-year-old suggests, could be due to the bicycle fall. The expert, on the other hand, sees things quite differently, emphasizing later in her presentation: “This is absolutely clearly an injury caused by a dog bite.”
Even apart from the bicycle fall theory, the partly contradictory statements of the accused cannot convince the presiding judge. “Your statement is not one hundred percent comprehensible to me,” she complained during the course of the hearing.
Dalmatian has shown aggressive behavior before
In addition, there is the history of the woman – and her dog. Because “Dalmi” had already become conspicuous in the years before the incident, according to the public prosecutor’s office, “showed aggressive behavior, especially towards children” and also injured them several times. Only two months before the attack on the four-year-old, the doctor had been sentenced to a fine of 90 daily rates by the Munich I Regional Court for negligent bodily harm to two children.
In addition, after a series of incidents in March 2021, the city of Munich prohibited her from walking her dog under the influence of alcohol. On the September evening in question, she drank two small glasses of white wine before going for a walk, the woman reports – a statement that the prosecutor doubts. Because: Your breath alcohol test after the incident showed a value of more than 2.0 per thousand.
Meanwhile, an ambulance took the then four-year-old to the hospital immediately after the attack, where the bitten off part of his ear – a passer-by had previously found it on the ground in the midst of leaves – was sewn back on during a two-hour emergency operation.
As a result, however, his body rejected the ear piece, the mother said in court with a shaky voice. “That’s why the doctor took it off bit by bit.” The boy, whose family no longer lives in Munich, had to undergo therapeutic treatment for a long time as a result of the incident. The judge wanted to know how he was doing today. “He wears long hair that covers his ear,” the mother replies. “And he doesn’t want anyone to see the ear.”