A man 'booted' a dog 'like a rugby ball' - before threatening a woman who tried to intervene, telling her he'd 'smash her face in' and drown her. Michael Lee claimed to have been trying to train the bullmastiff Chunk for 'protection', by raising his leg towards him in park.
The 47-year-old denied making any connection with the animal. In bizarre scenes at Bolton Magistrates' Court, Lee claimed he realised the dog 'wasn't [his] Chunk' when it did not react to his actions.
He told magistrates his friend must have switched Chunk with his near-identical dog, also called Chunk, for 'a bit of a joke'. Rejecting his version of events, magistrates found Lee, of Hilda Street, Heywood, guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
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They also found him guilty of common assault, in relation to the threats of violence he made towards a woman. Prosecution solicitor Shahid Khan called the woman to give evidence.
She told the court she was walking through Queen's Park, in Heywood, with her wife and daughter, at around 3pm on January 22. She said it had been a 'clear day' and that it was her wife who initially spotted Lee across the lake kicking his dog.
Asked by Mr Khan to describe the kick, the witness said: "It was kind of like a kick a rugby player would perform to get the ball over the post." The animal 'yelped in pain' and cowered, the woman. She approached Lee and asked if she could buy the dog from him.
She told the court. "He said he was going to smash my face in, he was swearing at me, telling me go away, he said he was going to hang the dog, he said he was going to hang me and drown me in the river."
"He said he was going to kill it", she added. "He said he was going to hang it in the woods."
She referred to Lee 'booting' the dog and said: "It was absolutely petrified of him, he just kept leathering in the chest."
Police detained Lee, who was still with the dog. Body-worn footage played in court showed Lee being aggressive with officers.
He told them 'he's not my dog', but when an officer took control of Chunk's lead, Lee grabbed at it and shouted: "I want my f***ing dog back". Lee then called the officers 'a bunch of w*****s' as they arrested him.
Photographs were shown to the court, appearing to show a patch of dirt on the animal's chest. Three police witnesses described it as a 'foot mark'.
Lee, who wore a tracksuit top with sports shorts and smirked through large parts of the hearing, was cross-examined by defence solicitor Joe Rawlings. He told the court that he got Chunk at eight-weeks-old and had 'a very good bond' with the animal.
At the time of the incident, Chunk was around 18-months-old. Lee said he would take him into the park every day to train him and let him 'socialise'.
Lee claimed to have cared for '10 to 20' dogs in his life and said: "I've trained every single dog I've ever had." He added: "I have a rope lead, he has it in mouth and I’m tugging as I’m going along, it’s how I train him to carry his lead."
"As he’s tugging it, I’m raising my leg as an action so the dog can react to it. When he sees it he’ll spin, so he can’t get kicked. It’s mainly for his protection.
"I’ve trained that dog since he was three-months-old and there was no reaction whatsoever. He normally reacts instantly.
"I looked at him to see if there was anything wrong and looked at him in the eyes. One of his eyes were white. My Chunky has clear eyes."
It was at this moment that Lee claimed he realised that it wasn't his dog. He said: "Someone had switched the dog, my mate had been taking the p***, basically.
"I know how it sounds but my mate's had a bit of a joke. The litter Chunk came from, there were three dogs that looked exactly the same.
"My mate’s dog is called Chunk as well but he wasn’t my Chunk."
Lee admitted to 'saying a few horrible things' to the woman, but claimed that it was because she was 'distressing' him by following him. He denied throwing anything or making threats.
Chairman of the bench Martin Simpson told Lee that he had been found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and common assault. Lee will be sentenced at Tameside Magistrates' Court on August 15.
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