Cardiff man saves woman and newborn from attack by three dogs

A man has described the moment he helped save a woman and her one-week-old baby as they were being attacked by three dogs.

William Newbury, 22, said he was dropping off baby presents to a friend at her boyfriend’s house in Llanrumney, Cardiff, on Mother’s Day when he saw the “nightmare” attack through their letterbox.

He said he climbed through a window to intervene and was left with various injuries all over his body, including losing the use of two fingers on his left hand.

South Wales Police said the three Staffordshire bull terriers involved in the attack on 30 March had been destroyed, but no arrests had been made.

Mr Newbury, from Roath, described hearing screaming as he arrived at the house and originally thinking it was a baby crying in the garden.

“It turned out to be the mother, I went up to the letterbox and looked through and saw the mum and the baby being attacked by three dogs,” he said.

“The door must have been locked or broken as I couldn’t get in, but I tried banging on the door and shouting through the letterbox to try and distract the dog.”

He said one of the dogs was distracted by his attempts, but the two others continued attacking them.

“Luckily there was a downstairs window that was open and I didn’t even think about it, I went straight in.”

Mr Newbury said he helped pick the mother up and pass the baby out the window when the dogs started attacking him.

“They were all targeting me, nothing I did was stopping them, I was hitting one of the dogs trying to get it to stop, but it didn’t work.”

He recalled being in the house for about 20 minutes and having to be taken to hospital to be treated for various injuries.

“They got me on my leg, hands, arm, side of my face, my stomach, my lower back, basically head to toe,” he added.

Mr Newbury said he spent a week in hospital before being released, but his recovery was continuing.

The mum and baby were also treated in hospital for their injuries, which were not life threatening.

Meanwhile, Mr Newbury said he had been told by doctors that his little finger on his left hand “would never function normally again”.

“I refuse to be scared of dogs, but if it dog comes up to me now, I do step out of its way.

“I’ve already had one counselling session to get over this, I’ve had nightmares, I can replay the whole situation in my head, it’s horrible.”

South Wales Police said officers were called to the incident and all three people involved suffered injuries that required treatment but were not life threatening.