Man who stabbed British police dog jailed for 21 months under new law

A 29-year-old British man who stabbed a police dog in the head in a "gratuitous" attack while high on drugs has been sentenced to 21 months in prison, becoming the first person to be jailed under a new law.

Daniel O'Sullivan admitted attacking police dog Audi as his handler tried to make an arrest in Stoke-on-Trent on July 1, the BBC reported on Monday.

O'Sullivan, of Liverpool, was the first person charged under the Animal Welfare (Service Animals) Act 2019.

Judge Paul Glenn said the attack was "plainly premeditated" and jailed O'Sullivan for 21 months.

O'Sullivan also admitted five counts of assaulting police officers and two of possessing offensive weapons, the report said.

A member of the public called police after being concerned about O'Sullivan's behaviour.

Howard Searle, the prosecutor, said he was seen "bouncing up and down, punching the air with the knife, making practice lunges".

Several police officers arrived, including Police Constable Karl Mander and Audi, and O'Sullivan was found with a 4-inch lock-knife in one hand and a glass bottle in the other.

The court heard O'Sullivan was high on cocaine and the synthetic drug known as monkey dust at the time.

Officers ordered O'Sullivan to drop the knife, but he refused and threw a glass bottle at them, at which point the police dog was released.

O'Sullivan stabbed Audi near the eye and tried to stab him again, before being chased by officers, when he was tasered and fell to the floor.

In the scuffle he also kicked an officer in the head.

Sentencing O'Sullivan, Judge Glenn said he had been "screaming threats, including that [he] would stab the dog handler".

The judge said it had been called a "gratuitous" and "plainly premeditated" assault on Audi and O'Sullivan had gone on to be aggressive to hospital staff when he was admitted for treatment.

"O'Sullivan was out to seriously hurt Police Dog Audi and it was lucky that he wasn't blinded or killed as a result of his injuries," Detective Inspector Stephen Ward said.

Audi has since returned to work with Staffordshire Police and has "recovered well", the force said.

Mander said last month Audi had had "lots of rest", adding there did not seem "to be any lasting damage to him".

O'Sullivan was also charged with one count of affray, which he denied.

O'Sullivan - who had previous convictions for attacking police, battery and affray - was the first person to be charged under the Animal Welfare (Service Animals) Act 2019 - also known as Finn's Law - since it was introduced, the report said.

Before the act was passed, attacks on police dogs were treated as criminal damage, it added.