Parents of baby Kyra King handed suspended sentences

Karen Alcock, 41, and her ex-partner Vince King, 55, admitted the charge relating to the death of their daughter, Kyra King, who sustained fatal head and neck injuries when she was mauled by the Siberian husky sled dog called Blizzard.

Lincoln Crown Court heard King, of Castledyke Bank, New York, owned a number of husky dogs that were bred to compete in sled racing events where he competed successfully at a national level, and were not kept as pets.

At around 11.30pm on Sunday March 6, 2022, the couple had driven their van of 19 dogs to a car park in Ostlers Plantation, a woodland near Woodhall Spa.

The couple, who are now separated, had returned to the van to rotate the sledding teams when Blizzard escaped through the open front passenger door and attacked the baby who was in a pram immediately adjacent to the van.

There was no partition preventing the dogs from moving from the rear of the vehicle into the front, although the animals were usually housed in lockable cages when in the van, the court heard.

Jeremy Janes, prosecuting, said 14 of the dogs were to be exercised consecutively by Mr King in two teams of seven dogs along a three mile route, after the five other retired dogs were walked together by the couple with Kyra in her pram.

The court heard that King was the legal owner of the dogs, but Alcock, a veterinary nurse, was the last person to interact with Blizzard before the attack.

Mr Janes said the attack took place as Mr King unharnassed the first team of seven dogs at the rear of the van and got the second team of seven dogs ready.

Alcock admitted placing Blizzard, who was the lead dog of the first team, in the middle of the van with two of the other huskies to drink some water, and then closing the sliding door of the van. She then began to help King with the second team.

"She turned to see Blizzard on top of Kyra and the pram," Mr Janes told the court.

"She shouted 'baby, Blizzard.' Blizzard did not desist "

The court heard Alcock went over to Kyra to remove the dog and began CPR after clearly seeing she was badly injured. She was quickly joined by King.

Kyra sustained serious head and neck injuries, and the severance of an artery.

"Massive injuries, especially for a child of three months of age," Mr Janes added.

She was declared dead at the scene after paramedics could not save her.

King and Alcock were arrested and later charged with owning or being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control.

The couple had met in 2019 and had been in a regular, twice-weekly routine of taking Kyra to the wood with the dogs since she was just five days old.

Social services had visited the couple's home on two occasions and had decided there were no problems with arrangements at the property, describing it as "spotless."

During his interview, King insisted there had never been any similar incidents while exercising the dogs.

Alcock was too upset to be interviewed but later made a statement in which she described putting Blizzard and two other dogs in the middle of the van and then closing the sliding side door.

The court heard Alcock had recently given birth to a second child after splitting from King, and had taken the decision to re-home her own dogs.

Mr Janes said Alcock had a previous caution from 2007 for being in charge of an out of control dog when a toddler sat on a spaniel and the dog bit the child's trousers.

Mr Janes argued the incident fell into medium culpability on the sentencing guidelines as the leaving of an open door made it reasonably foreseeable.

The prosecutor said this was aggravated by a previous escape where Blizzard bit through her harness, and the fact that she was in a heightened state by being exercised and pregnant.

Nigel Edwards KC, mitigating for Alcock, said she had tried to resuscitate her daughter and argued it was a case full of hindsight.

"Of course she should have shut the door," Mr Edwards told the court.

Mr Edwards said looking back with '20-20' vision, the only reason Miss Alcock could find for the attack was that Blizzard had not eaten fully.

"There was no way this dog could be seen as a danger, to harm a child," Mr Edwards added.

Mr Edwards also stressed that a prosecution expert who examined Blizzard found nothing untoward with the dog.

Siward James-Moore, mitigating for King, argued it was a momentary lapse rather than a lack of safe systems, and said Mr King did his best on that day.

"The immediate loss of his daughter must be his principal mitigation," Mr James-Moore told the court.

"But his career racing dogs for some 20 years, and that is what was, is now over.

"He has always been a teacher of some kind, even when in the military."

Passing sentence, Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight said Blizzard had not previously presented any concerns and she was not satisfied the attack was reasonably foreseeable.

Judge Sjolin Knight said it was instead a case of "terrible circumstances aligning."

"This is a tragic case and I have no doubt both of you wish every day that you could turn the clock back," Judge Sjolin Knight told the former couple.

"She did an awful thing, which neither of you expected and which will weigh heavily on both of you for the rest of your lives."

Judge Sjolin Knight said she could therefore suspend the prison sentences she was passing on Kyra's parents.

"Kyra was particularly vulnerable as she was a baby," Judge Sjolin Knight added. "But you will feel that more than anyone as she was your baby."

Alcock was sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 80 hours of work in the community.

King was sentenced to ten months imprisonment suspended for two years, because he entered his guilty plea at a later stage, and ordered to carry out 100 hours of work in the community.

Judge Sjolin Knight told the couple an order banning them from owning dogs was not suitable because of the circumstances of the case.

The Judge made an order for the destruction of Blizzard after stressing her attack on Kyra was something that was not predictable.

Lincolnshire Police previously said Blizzard had been kept in isolation at secure kennels since the incident.