CONVICTED (2024) | Joseph Fogg, born c. 1984, of South Parade, Pensarn, Abergele LL22 7RH – kicked a dog with force during a domestic violence incident.
Fogg admitted causing unnecessary suffering to an animal alongside charges of assault by beating, using threatening behaviour, criminal damage to property and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Prosecuting, Thomas McLoughlin told the court that, at about 5.30pm in Rhyl on October 2, 2023, Fogg pushed a woman, bruising her and causing her to fall to the floor.
Fogg then kicked a dog with such force that she retreated and urinated.
He then caused roughly £1,100 of damage to the woman’s mobile phone, rendering it unusable.
While carrying the child, the woman was then punched on multiple occasions by Fogg, though one of his blows struck the child in the face instead.
The woman suffered swelling, bruising and cuts, and both she and the child suffered reddening under their eyes.
After the woman told Fogg that he had hit the child, he replied: “I’ll do it again.”
Defending Fogg, who had 16 previous convictions for 23 offences, but none for violent matters since 2012, Jade Tufail asked if the court could consider suspending his custodial sentence.
She said he has been “out of trouble” for three years, and suffers from mental health issues and alcoholism – though he “hasn’t touched a drink since the incident,” she added.
Ms Tufail described Fogg as “not somebody who is without hope”.
Sentencing, Judge Nicola Saffman deemed Fogg’s offences too serious for immediate custody to be avoided.
“You were clearly intoxicated,” she told Fogg, who spent much of the hearing weeping and with his head in his hands.
Judge Saffman added: “In my judgment, this is a matter where only an immediate custodial sentence is appropriate.”
Sentencing | two-year custodial. No mention of a ban.