Ten Men Found Guilty Over Dog Fight

Ten men have been found guilty of a variety of charges connected to an organised dog fight in Birmingham in which two pit bull terriers were killed.

The judge at Birmingham Magistrates' Court found all the men guilty to attending the fight, in Alum Rock in the city in February 2006, while five more were charged with more serious offences, including possessing a pit bull and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

All the men had denied the charges against them, including one man who claimed that he thought the fight was a blues party.

During the trial, graphic footage of the fight was shown to the jury, in which squeals of pain could be heard, along with phrases such as "shake him" and "come on boy".

The court heard how the dogs had bit each other so badly that one was left covered in blood with hardly any hair round its face.

One dog died a few hours after the fight - it had been pushed up into ceiling tiles in an attempt to hide it. The other animal was so badly injured that it had to be put down 48 hours later.

Chief Inspector Ian Briggs from the RSPCA said: "For a super-fit pit bull to die so soon after the fight showed how terrible it must have been."

The men found guilty of attending the party where issued with fines ranging between £750 and £1,400 by District Judge Kal Qureshi.

They have been named as: Mamoon Ahmed, 24, of Phipson Road in Bimringham; Yasser Khalid, 25, of Rotton Park Road, Edgbagston, Birmingham; Nabeel Safdar, 25, of Ash Road, Saltley in Birmingham; Majid Mushtaq, 28, of Fletcher Road, Preston, Lancashire; and Imran Arif, 29, of Sandway Gardens, Washwood Health, Birmingham.

However, the men found guilty of the more serious offences are facing jail sentences. They have been named as: Barkat Hussain, 42, of Unett Street, Smethwick, West Midlands and Intikab Hussain, 31, of Sladefield Road, Ward End, Birmingham, who were found guilty of attending the fight, causing animals to fight, possessing a pit bull and causing unnecessary; Sohail Hussain, 25, of Parkfield Road, Saltley, Birmingham and Zahir Ahmed, 31, of Bevington Road, Aston, Birmingham, who were convicted of attending the fight and possessing a pit bull; and Ummar Ahmed, 26, of Phipson Road in Birmingham, who was found guilty of attending the fight and keeping premises for dog fighting.

They will be sentenced next month.

(KMcA)