Oxford jury told 'dangerous' dog attacked biker in Didcot

Prosecutors say the animal’s owner, Abigail Bednarczyk, set it on biker Robert Bennett after he picked her up and literally carried her back to her front door, fearing the woman would ‘slap’ his partner in a dispute on their Didcot street.

Bednarczyk, 32, denies a charge of being in control of a dog that, when dangerously out of control, caused injury to another.

Opening the case against the defendant, prosecutor Laura Hollingbery told jurors at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday (October 5) that it was the Crown’s case she would not only have reasonably thought the dog might injure someone – but that ‘in her anger’ she opened her door knowing it was likely to attack the victim.

The incident happened in Beech Lane, Didcot Picture: Google (Image: Google)

From the witness box, Mr Bennett said he was test riding a motorcycle when he pulled up outside partner Dana Lovelock’s home in Beech Lane on May 6 last year, intending to show her the bike.

She was in the road, while ‘Abbie’ Bednarczyk was on the ground, he said. The second woman got up and ‘stepped towards’ his partner, the jury was told.

Still wearing his motorcycle helmet, he came from behind and lifted Bednarczyk up. “She went ‘who’s this?’ My words were ‘it’s your worst f***ing nightmare’.”

Why did you say that?” he was asked by Ms Hollingbery. He replied: “I don’t know. It was just the first thing that come [sic] into my head, it be honest.”

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Asked what he thought would have happened had he not intervened, Mr Bennett said: “I think Dana would have got a slap.

It was just the body language, the way she was going to her.”

He said he carried Bednarczyk the short distance to her home, then used his foot to open the defendant’s front door and put her inside.

There was a scuffle over the door, with Bednarczyk trying to keep it open and Mr Bennett trying to shut it, he said.

Mr Bennett managed to shut the door, the jury was told, and turned round to go back to his partner. “At this point the door’s been opened, I’ve turned round and as I turned round I heard ‘f***ing get him’. The dog’s run at me.”

He said the dog lunged towards him. “I stuck my arm out because it was going towards my groin,” he told the court.

The animal’s jaw was locked onto his right forearm for up to 20 seconds, before he managed to poke it in the eye and the dog relaxed its grip. It then went for his helmet and was ‘gouging’ the visor, he said.

He managed to get up, while Bednarczyk put the dog back in the house, he said. It was then that he took off the helmet, revealing his identity. He told the jury: “She went ‘oh, Rob, it’s you’.”

The defendant kicked his motorbike, but the vehicle’s stand took the force of the strike and the bike stayed upright, he said.

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Fearing further damage to the borrowed bike, he parked it up around the corner.

He said it was only as he returned on foot to check on his partner that he removed his motorcycle jacket.

“A lump of muscle or [a blood] clot fell out as I pulled the jacket off,” he told jurors.

The jury was told that he ignored requests for him to wait at the scene for an ambulance to arrive and, instead, drove the motorcycle to a friend’s house, where he helped wash down the blood-stained bike.

He was later taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital. His injuries were cleaned and, later, stitched by plastic surgeons.

Bednarczyk, of Beech Lane, Didcot, denies being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog.

The trial continues.