Ryan Young failed to wake from drunken sleep as Lakeland-cross terrier attacked three-week-old for up to 20 minutes

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A father who drunkenly slept through a sustained, fatal attack by the family dog on his three-week-old son has been jailed for 21 months.



Reggie Young’s mother, Maria Blacklin, screamed when she came home to find him barely alive, with her partner, Ryan Young, and their Lakeland-cross, Tricky, asleep.

Newcastle crown court heard that the attack by the foot-tall dog could easily have been stopped, but the father did not wake up and the mauling may have lasted up to 20 minutes.

Young, a roofer, later told police he had drunk eight cans of lager, and a taxi driver came forward to say he had been asked to deliver eight more to Young’s Sunderland address on the evening in June 2015.

Blacklin’s grandmother had died that day and she had gone out to console her family, leaving Young to look after Reggie, who was in a bouncer in the lounge.

The court heard that the dog was kept in the garden and normally only allowed in the kitchen, but there were no concerns over its temperament around children; it was not a fighting dog or used in vermin control.

Blacklin returned home after 4am to what Judge Tim Gittens said was a scene of “Gothic horror”, with her newborn on the floor in a pool of blood. Reggie was blue but still breathing and paramedics were called but he could not be saved.

Young later told police: “I would not say I was drunk, more tired.”

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said: “The officers who arrived described the defendant as appearing drunk.”

He refused to give a breath test and the amount he had drunk was not clear.

Inquiries suggested the baby fell or was dragged from the bouncer and was mauled by the terrier, which had not had contact with the newborn before and may have been driven to attack by Reggie’s “uncoordinated” movements.

Dodds said: “Had the defendant not been asleep in drink, he would have been able to stop the attack.”

Young, who admitted being the owner of the dog that resulted in the death while dangerously out of control at a previous hearing, cried throughout the proceedings.

Caroline Goodwin QC, defending, said: “He is absolutely devastated. Nothing he can do can turn back the clock and bring back his own child.

“It was all the more harrowing for the family when he carried his child’s coffin before the service. It has been a long two years, this is a life sentence for this man.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ryan Young carries Reggie’s coffin at his funeral service at Sunderland Minster in July 2015. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Goodwin said the dog, which was about two years old, had no history of aggression but behaved “naturally and instinctively” on the night.

Gittens said: “Reggie was subjected to a most dreadful, torturous, confusing attack and he sustained horrific and painful injuries.”

The judge accepted that Young, a hard-working father, had since developed depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in which he repeatedly experienced the aftermath of the attack.

He said: “I am satisfied that your lack of control of your animal was due to the influence of alcohol and your selfish decision to drink to excess after a hard day at work.”

Young was jailed for 21 months and banned from keeping a dog for seven years. No family members were in court for the sentencing.