I don't BLAME the kid, it's more an unfortunate accident, but I sure don't blame that copper nor his dog! The only thing I blame the kid for, is for getting so close when he had ample room in a back garden to get to safety. Remember "he was in the shed working on his scooter" he would have been safer to have stayed in the shed.

No, I'm not changing my mind, I have a right to an opinion, and I think this kid was bdooly stupid!

Oh come on, the child needed 20 stitches, what more do you need to know.


Jackie,
Re. 20 stitches, the resulting injury is not in contention, I have already said the boy is not to blame here. What i said was "we were not there" to see what took place and understand why the officer failed to see the child. ie, the reason the officer failed to control his dog.

It's all very easy to pronounce a view in such a definitive manner, but without actually witnessing the event it is just conjecture. We will never know.

Off to the woods now for a stroll in the rain, the pleasures of being a dog owner eh?

The dog is not to blame. IMO this was just the unfortunate consequences that occasionally happen when police dogs have to be deployed. They are trained to bite - to hold on and prevent escape until their handler has caught up and made the arrest or whatever. Police dogs - unlike our pet dogs - have little or no restraint where children are concerned, and although tragic, horrible and extremely frightening for the poor boy and his family, I really don't think we should blame the police or the dog. Everyone was doing their duty - we moan constantly about the police not doing their duty, and then we moan when things go awry as in this case.

It is an extremely unfortunate accident and the boy and his family should of course receive the best of care in terms of medical treatment, pyschological assessment and treatment etc. etc. Doubtless the poor lad will be suffering trauma and will need psychiatric help of some sort. But IMO it is totally unfair and unreasonable to blame the police and the dog in any way.

Are you sure you'd feel the same if it was your child in your garden?

In this day and age, a 10 year old boy is pretty street wise and usually has a gob on him, and I cannot understand why he didn't use both!

I've watched many a police programme, seen the dog handlers throw the dog over walls/fences, and I think it is OUR job to keep out of the way and let them both do their job. This boy knew they were police officers, he was supposedly "in the shed fixing his scooter" and in my estimation, he would have been safe if he'd stayed in said shed and called out to the police. That didn't happen, WHY did he come right over that close to the policeman looking underneath the car? Surely a 10 yr old knows what a policeman and a police dog looks like don't they and have been taught to keep AWAY from them?

I have a 10 yr old little boy next door, and along with that he's also autistic, but I'm darn sure he'd keep out of the way if he saw a a policeman dressed in uniform with a hyped up dog at the end of a metre lead.

It's not as if this boy was "surprised" in any way, because he was IN THE SHED! Not as if he was sitting on the ground playing with his mates and the dog barges in on them in HIS garden.

My opinion is, there's a big part of this story missing, and I bet the culprit of metal theift was actually in that house if not hiding underneath that car, and the kid came over to protect his dad, that's more like it

I haven't changed my mind, I'm with the policeman and his dog, I have the utmost respect for our police force, they endure tremendous sh*t thrown at them nowadays, especially on this type of estate, and they must have been pretty desperate to catch this guy, and took their eye off the ball maybe for a minute or two.

If the kid as all innocent along with the family in that house, then I'll eat my words, and could bed persuaded to change my mind, but as it stands having read the article, I'm sticking with my opinion.

Anyway, who's blaming the kid? I can't see where anyone has blamed the kid, except for saying he should have had more bdooly sense, and kept his distance, especially at 10! I'm saying the policeman and his dog were doing their job, and I'll bet my bottom dollar when the full story comes out, that kid WENT over to him to protect his dad underneath that car - probably, and that is WRONG if he did, he was hindering a policeman in the line of duty and that's against the law, 10 years old or not, if he's savvy enough to do that, then he's savvy enough to have kept well out of it.

Why didn't the kid run indoors then if he was that scared??? He had every opportunity cos the dog was ONlead!

I don't know about anyone else here but children I parent have been brought up to go to police and trust them, blimey who else should a child trust if not a police person ! Certainly would be disappointed if they ran away when they saw one, and I may add best way to attract a police dogs attention is run away from it !