What happened
On 7 April 2025 a South Tyneside Homes housing officer attended Alison Kennard’s address in South Shields for a routine client visit. In the garden he saw two dogs: Tyson, a brown staffy-type dog belonging to Kennard, and Hank, belonging to someone else. Something “didn’t feel right”, he later said, and he began to leave.
The dogs snarled and pounced. He ended up on the ground twice while his feet and legs were mauled, and Tyson locked his teeth on his right foot and dragged him along the ground. He broke free, drove himself to hospital, and needed surgery for a fractured foot and deep puncture wounds.
Tyson was already subject to a contingent destruction order, imposed in 2021 after a 2020 attack on a 15-year-old girl. The order required the dog to be muzzled outside the property. He was not muzzled when the officer arrived.
The outcome
Both dogs have since been destroyed. At Newcastle Crown Court in November 2025 Kennard, of Norham Avenue North, South Shields, admitted being the owner of a dog that was dangerously out of control and caused injury, in relation to Tyson. Recorder Rebecca Brown sentenced her to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with rehabilitation and alcohol treatment requirements, a £500 compensation order and a five-year ban from having dogs.
In his victim statement the officer said: “I thought ‘this is it, I’m dead’. I wasn’t just bitten by the dogs, I was savaged.” A former world champion kickboxer, he said he could no longer compete, train or teach.
What went wrong
The control that failed was a court order. A dog that had already injured a child was required to be muzzled away from the property, and the visit happened on a day when he was loose in the garden. The officer found that out at the gate.
Behind it sits the visit. Nothing in the sources describes a pre-visit check on dogs at the address, a flag left by the 2020 attack, or an instruction to stay outside until the animals were secured. The trust’s dog-risk process is not described in any report read.
Then there is the gap after the attack. A man with a fractured foot and puncture wounds drove himself to hospital. No source records an alarm raised on site, a colleague called, or an ambulance.
What it teaches
The officer’s instinct was right and it was not enough. Deciding to withdraw is a safety decision, and the organisation has to authorise it in advance, so a worker at a gate is not weighing a missed appointment against a dog.
A dog check belongs in the paperwork before the visit: what animals are at the address, what conditions apply to them, and what the worker does if the answer is unsatisfactory. Where a court order requires a muzzle, the visit should not start until someone has seen it.
Our lone working training covers pre-visit checks and the right to refuse entry.
Questions for the room
- Before your next visit, is there a written check that the dogs are contained, and would your visit list flag a property where a dog has already injured someone?
- What is your organisation’s line on refusing entry when a dog is loose, and does your manager back it?
- If you are badly bitten in a garden, who is coming for you, and how do you call them?
Evidence and limits
Confidence: confirmed. Two sources were read: the Shields Gazette and Chronicle Live, both reporting the same Crown Court hearing. Neither describes the trust’s post-incident review or its visit policy, so this page makes no claim about them. The officer is not named in either report and is not named here; the sentence and the victim statement quotations are as published.
Sources
- Shields Gazette, 2025 · https://shieldsgazette.com/news/crime/this-is-it-im-dead-council-housing-officer-and-champion-kickboxer-savaged-by-2-dogs-during-home-visit-5386727
- Chronicle Live, 2025 · https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tyneside-dangerous-dog-owner-avoids-32803975
Reviewed 20 October 2026.