In the original judgement, the accused was found guilty on multiple counts including assault with a weapon (the pit bull dog Tiger and a beer bottle), aggravated assault, and breaches of probation. The court found that T.B. had control over the dog, intentionally commanded it to attack two victims causing significant injuries, and threw a beer bottle at a police officer during his flight. While he was acquitted of animal cruelty due to reasonable doubt on intentionally causing “sufficient harm” to the dog, the court concluded the dog was used as a weapon, and T.B. was convicted as a principal to the assaults. You can read the initial case here.
An appeal was made based on the claim that trial judge placed undue emphasis on the appellant’s demeanour, which led to her undue assessment of the credibility of T.B.’s testimony.
The Ontario Court of Appeal found that the trial judge’s assessment towards T.B.’s demeanour played little role in her assessment of the credibility of T.B.’s testimony, therefore, dismissed the appeal.
https://canlii.ca/t/1vmf8