Man walks free from court after his dog attacks postwoman

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Michael Galaud had left the border collie in the care of his gardener

A pensioner whose dog attacked a postwoman as she delivered a parcel to his home has been acquitted of having a dog that was dangerously out of control.

Seventy-six-year-old Michael Galaud, of South Brewham, claimed he had asked his live-in gardener, a man called Brook, to keep an eye on his two border collie dogs while he swept up leaves on his property.


When the victim arrived at the address with a parcel that needed to be signed for she noticed the front gate was ajar and asked if it was alright for her to come in with the dogs present.

She patted the heads of both animals in a friendly gesture, but after both dogs walked away one of them returned and bit her on the leg leaving a number of puncture wounds to her knee.

The defendant claimed the dogs had never been aggressive to anybody before, despite him having erected warning signs around his house to “Beware of the dogs”.

He said that Brook had been a competent and fit person to have been entrusted to watch over the dogs while he was attending to an important phone call to someone in South Africa and that the dog had acted “out of character” on this occasion.

Galaud pleaded not guilty that on November 23 at South Brewham, he was the owner of a dog, namely a Border collie called “Chaplin”, which was dangerously out of control, and whilst so out of control it injured Bobbie White.

Ben Winzar, prosecuting for the Royal Mail, said that the victim went to Galaud’s address at 12.30pm to deliver a parcel that needed to be signed for.

“When she attended she noticed there was a gardener working outside along with two border collie dogs, and when she got out of her van she noticed the gate was ajar so she asked the gardener if it was safe to go in and he said it was,” he said.

“The dogs were not showing signs of aggression as she went towards them and she stroked both of them on the head. They turned away and headed towards the gate when one of the dogs returned and bit her on the leg by her knee causing pain which required medical treatment and left scarring.”

The gardener came to her assistance as she was in a state of shock and offered to get some Dettol to clean the wound. The matter was then reported to Mrs White’s managers.

The court was told that a defendant had a statutory defence to having a dog dangerously out of control if the animal was left in the care of a person who was fit to be in charge of it.

Giving evidence on oath, Galaud said that he had been busy that day and was taking an important phone call from South Africa when the gardener came in and told him about the incident.

When he had finished his call about five minutes later he went outside but Mrs White had then left the scene.


He dismissed suggestions that his dogs were allowed to roam freely on the road as “nonsense” and said that his gardener was an experienced dog owner and was a fit and competent person to have been watching over the dogs for him.

However the gardener did not appear in court to give evidence and Galaud said he had since left his employment and he did not know where he was now and had no way of contacting him.


After deliberating the evidence the magistrates said that they agreed that the defendant had given control of the dog to another person and that Brook had been a “fit and proper person” to be watching over the dogs.

As a result they found the Galaud was not guilty of the offence and he was allowed to walk free from court.