Thug hit police dog and handler with rock

However, following the trial the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for the wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon, and an 11-1 majority verdict of guilty for attempts to cause unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

- CARL EVE

A MAN who told he battered a police dog handler and his dog with a rock in the sleeve of a jumper has been jailed.

Alex Warren-Lean, aged 31, of no fixed abode, had already pleaded guilty at Plymouth Crown Court to possessing a prohibited weapon –a police Captor pepper spray – in Radnor Place, criminal damage to a door and affray on the evening of September 4, 2023.

He denied he intended to cause grievous bodily harm to the dog handler by swinging the weapon at his head, denied he possessed it as an offensive weapon and denied attempting to cause unnecessary suffering to a protected animal – Freddie the police dog. During the trial the jury watched bodyworn video footage from two police officers – PC James Whitehead who was first on the scene and police dog handler PC Andrew Parsons – which saw Warren-Lean react angrily from the moment they arrived.

Warren-Lean claimed at one point, when asked his name, that it was “Lucifer” and insisted he had been trying to safeguard a female “cousin” of his in a property who he believed had been slapped.

However, the woman was not his cousin, merely a family friend and residents of the property told police he had broken glass of a rear door to gain entry to the building, causing nearly £1,000 worth of damage.

As the officers attempted to arrest him for criminal damage he was seen to swing the jumper – which still contained a rock he had placed there to break the glass of the rear door – at Freddie and then PC Parson, cracking down upon his head. During the melee which followed, the jury were told Freddie bit PC Whitehead’s legs instead of Warren Lean, who by this stage had been able to snatch PC Parson’s Captor pepper spray and blast him in the face with it.