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Pet lover Troy Smith has proved the saying that owners come to resemble their pets... literally!
The 42-year-old’s bull terrier, Spike, bit a Springer spaniel in Dover town centre in February after being allowed to roam without its lead.
And when officers arrested Smith – who boasts 10 aliases – for affray following the bust-up over the attack...he dug his teeth into a police officer's finger drawing blood!
Now Smith, of Folkestone Road, Dover has been jailed for a year after admitting affray, failing to control a dangerous dog in Market Square and assaulting a police sergeant.
Prosecutor Martin Hooper told Canterbury Crown Court how the five-year-old “Spike” had been let off its leash in Dover and then attacked the spaniel biting it so severely it had to be humanely put down.
The police and support officers – armed with a spray - were alerted by CCTV and went in search of the terrier which ran away.
When they cornered it and caught it in a net Smith tried to stop them by trying to free the animal.
Mr Hooper said: “Smith is well known to the police and the officers attempted to catch the dog which bit one of the officers on their jacket.
“Fortunately the officer was wearing body armour. Smith then hit one of the officers in the general fracas. He was shouting at the officers to ‘f*** off!’
“One of the PCSOs was bitten on the thigh and the dog ran off. Officers feared it might attack someone else and sprayed the animal, “ he added.
The prosecutor said that dog wardens eventually caught Spike again but Smith once again tried to free the dog and was himself sprayed.
He was taken to Canterbury Police Station where he was “violent and uncooperative”, biting Police Sergeant Cochlan and telling him that he was “HIV positive”.
Mr Hooper said that Smith – who is also known as Troy Appleby – has a 60-offence long criminal record and had been released from a jail sentence just a day before the attack.
He said that the HIV claim wasn't true but had caused the sergeant some anxiety.
Christopher Wray, defending, said Smith was fond of his pet because he had raised it from being a puppy and “this dog was his whole life”.
The court heard that since the attack the animal had been put down.
The judge Recorder Morgan told him: "I can understand your feelings for this dog and I can understand you being overwrought but it doesn't excuse your behaviour."
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