The newborn baby died in September 2020
A dad has been jailed for four years after his newborn son was killed by his out-of-control dog.
Elon Jase Ellis-Joynes was only 12 days old when he was fatally bitten by his family’s Chow Chow Alsatian-cross called Teddy on Sunday, September 13, 2020.
The baby suffered 40 puncture wounds after being attacked by the “dangerously out of control” dog, which was owned by his father, Stephen Joynes, 36.
The attack took place at a family home shared by Joynes and his fiancée Abigail Ellis, 28, in Doncaster, Yorkshire.
Ellis had been charged alongside Joynes for the offence of being in charge of a dangerous dog, causing injury resulting in death, but these charges were dropped after Joynes took full responsibility for the tragedy.
In December 2020, he pleaded guilty to the charge of being a dog’s owner which caused death when dangerously out of control.
On Thursday, he was sentenced to four years behind bars at Sheffield Crown Court.
An inquest opening into Elon’s death heard he was still alive when his heartbroken mother frantically called an ambulance.
Doncaster coroner’s court heard that she told the 999 call handler that Elon was breathing, but was “really poorly” and was “bleeding from his leg or his stomach”.
Elon, who was born on September 1, 2020, was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead a short time later.
The dog was destroyed after the attack.
The sentencing comes after a string of high-profile dog attacks. On Wednesday, police confirmed that a two-year-old boy who was savagely mauled by a dog on Monday in Worcestershire had died in hospital.
And just last week 17-month-old Bella-Rae Birch died after being attacked by a dog. That incident followed a death, earlier this month, where a baby was mauled to death by a husky in Lincolnshire.
Related links:
- Worcestershire dog attack: Two-year-old boy dies after incident in Egdon
- St Helen’s dog attack: Breed that killed baby Bella-Rae finally confirmed
- Dad’s heartbreaking last message to ‘little princess’ killed by family dog
