Crown requests 18 months in jail for Saint John man whose dogs attacked people

Prosecutors want at least 18 months of jail time for a Saint John man whose dogs attacked four people on the lower west side.

Michael Edmond Kirby, 59, was found guilty of four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm in the summer of 2022. He was also previously fined $5,000 for bylaw infractions related to the same attacks.

The charges stem from three separate occasions where his dogs escaped and attacked people in 2018, including an elderly man and a 14-year-old on his way to school.

Crown prosecutor Elaina Campbell said 18 months "is still at the low range" considering other cases of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. She said the fact that one of the victims was a child should also be counted as a reason for tougher punishment.

Defence lawyer Charles Bryant is asking the judge for conditional release and probation. 

"A community-based sentence is appropriate," he said. "Actual jail is substantially disproportionate to Mr. Kirby and the gravity of these offences."

Bryant said the fine, the public scrutiny, and the stigma associated with the publicity all send a message to other dog owners that failing to control their dogs will result in serious consequences.

Kirby was charged after five separate incidents in four days between June and December 2018. The victims ranged from a 14-year-old boy on his way to school to an elderly man out for a stroll in his lower west side neighborhood. 

Injuries resulting from the attacks range from abrasions and several bites to psychological trauma and suffering.

In finding him guilty in the summer of 2022, Justice Arthur Doyle said that by Aug. 22, 2018, the date of the first charge against him, Kirby was aware of his dogs' "propensity to attack" people and knew, or ought to have known, they were a danger to innocent passersby.

On Thursday, Doyle said he plans to deliver his sentence at 2 p.m. Friday.

The judge asked Kirby if he had anything to say before he delivers his sentence.

Kirby stood up and said he's been bitten by dogs several times in the past and he sympathizes with the victims.

"I sympathize with the pain and trauma that they've been through. It's nothing you ever want to have your dogs do to another person," he said.