A SCHOOL IT worker has been spared an immediate jail sentence after her Pitbull/Staffordshire Bull Terrier crossbreed dog twice attacked men walking in the street near her home.

Hodor got out of the gate at Holly Fielding’s address in Selborne Villas, Clayton, Bradford, and bit the first victim on the leg and the second on the hip, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Fielding, 42, pleaded guilty to two charges of owning a dog dangerously out of control and causing injury on October 7, 2021, and September 7 last year.

Prosecutor Ella Embleton said that on the first occasion, Hodor ran out and bit a man on the leg. He kicked it and shouted at Fielding who told him to f*** off.

He was injured, scared and shaken up, the court was told.

He informed the police what had happened.

Eleven months later, the dog got out of the gate again and bit a man on the hip while he was walking down the street.

Hodor ran off towards the golf club with Fielding chasing after him, Miss Embleton said.

The man was left with a bleeding and bruised hip. He went to see Fielding and asked her to put the dog down.

A police officer then visited her to request that she surrender Hodor to them but the court heard she co-owned him with a rescue centre.

Fielding admitted she had been irresponsible. She fixed the gate and said she would keep the dog leashed and muzzled.

The court heard that Hodor was now living at kennels in the South of England. He must never be rehomed and there had been no problems with him since.

Fielding’s barrister, Erin Kitson-Parker, said the incidents were ‘total accidents.’ She shouldn’t be disqualified from owning another dog. It was a huge lack of judgement on her part with no malice involved.

She worked in IT at a school and had never been in trouble before. She was extremely remorseful and didn’t plan on getting another dog at the moment.

After the second incident, she muzzled the dog and fixed the gate.

Recorder Alex Menary said the two incidents involving Hodor had caused nasty injuries and were serious offences.

“It doesn’t take much to imagine what might have happened if it had been a small child,” he said.

But the dog was taken back by a pet rescue centre in the South of England and it was doing well there.

Fielding was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with 100 hours of unpaid work and up to five rehabilitation activity days.

Recorder Menary ordered her to pay £500 compensation to each of the victims within six months.

She wasn’t banned from keeping a dog because they were two isolated incidents some time ago. She now understood the importance of maintaining security if she kept one in the future, the recorder said.