A 62-year-old man whose dog launched a “terrifying” attack on an 11-year-old girl and two men who were helping her has been released from court.

Farhat Ajaz, who is thought to have a dog XL bullyHe was given a two-year suspended prison sentence after he also admitted threatening to kill his former partner.

Ajaz, of Bordesley Close, BirminghamHe pleaded guilty at previous hearings to charges of harassment causing fear of violence and being the owner or responsible owner of a dog that got dangerously out of control and caused injury.

Security cameras from a shop heard in court showed that a dog named Tyson broke its leash and attacked an 11-year-old boy in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, on September 9 last year.

The victim, whose name cannot be given due to his age, was left with a scar on his arm and shoulder.

Other footage taken by bus passengers showed attacks on Numaan Ahmed and Yousef Ahmadzai, who helped the girl but were injured in the forecourt of a nearby petrol station, with one of them fearing she would die.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Ajaz, who was imprisoned in 1979 and served 25 years before being released in 2004, was on a life license at the time of the offences. No details about this crime were given to the court.

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‘If you were young, you would go to jail’

Sentencing Ajaz, Judge Heidi Kubik KC said the harassment, relating to a series of incidents in February and March 2022, involved “vile, threatening and abusive” behavior and merited a prison sentence alone.

The judge told Ajaz: “You were wandering around the street with the dog, even at that stage you were not in good health and frankly you were not in a position to restrain the dog, which was not muzzled at the time.

“It was an attack on three separate people, including an 11-year-old girl. It was a horrific attack. She was undoubtedly and rightfully horrified.”

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The judge was told that Ajaz, who suffered a heart attack immediately after the dog attack, considered himself a “dead man walking” due to various health problems, including lung disease and heart problems.

The judge told him: “I make it very clear that if you were a healthy young man you would go to prison immediately today.

“Having regard to your plea of ​​guilty and the medical conditions to which you are now subjected, I am of the opinion that it would not be in the interests of justice to immediately send you into custody today.”

Ajaz, whose sentence was suspended for two years, left the court on crutches and told reporters that he was sorry for what happened.

He was also banned from owning a dog for the rest of his life and became the subject of a restraining order.