PA Regional Newswire
LONDON — Police officers, some of them wounded, fled screaming after a pitbull attacked them during a house raid in east London — while locals stood and filmed the scene on their mobile phones, a court has heard.
One police officer broke down in tears as he told the jury at Inner London Crown Court how the dog attacked his colleague as they tried to subdue it and seemed not to notice them hitting it with their batons.
Members of the public who heard the four injured officers’ screams came to the scene and stood there filming as they sought refuge on walls and inside a police van, another officer said.
Symieon Robinson-Pierre, 25, who is standing trial accused of four offences under the Dangerous Dogs Act, made no attempt to call his animal off the officers, the court heard.
It took five officers to partially subdue the animal but it was shot dead around 20 minutes later by armed police. The court heard that Robinson-Pierre told police: “It’s not the dog’s fault, you could have knocked, I’d have let you in,’' when he was arrested a short time later at the house in Albert Square, Newham, east London on March 22 this year.
Detective Constable Tom Boow, who was behind three uniformed Pcs — Mark Merritt, Martin Corderoy and Lee Bush — as they forced their way into the house, told the court that almost as soon as they broke down the door they started coming backward.
``I heard Martin Corderoy scream, it was the sort of scream you make when something bad has happened,’' he said. “Then I saw a dog clamped on to his leg.’'
He said the dog then bit Pc Bush. As the officers tried to evade the dog on high ground, other officers arrived at the scene. Pc Duncan West said he arrived and using a 5ft riot shield tried to restrain the dog with colleague Pc Steve Bones.
He said he put his full 16-stone weight on the shield to pin the dog down while other officers hit it with batons and helped hold it down. They managed to get a dog pole with a noose on to it but were still struggling to control it when an armed response unit arrived and shot it, he said.
The jury of seven men and five women were shown a video of the scene taken by police, showing bloodstains on the pavement and on a car where one officer sought refuge on the roof. Robinson-Pierre denies all four charges.
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