Knife man gets reduced sentence after dog bite to testicles

A 32-year-old man in southern Sweden found guilty of assaulting his ex-girlfriend has been granted a lower than usual sentence because of the suffering caused when he was bitten in the testicles by the woman's Rottweiler.

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Helsingborg District Court sentenced the man to one and a half years in jail for aggravated assault after finding him guilty of stabbing his ex-girlfriend twice from behind with a knife. The court said he would have received a longer sentence had he not been severely bitten in course of the melee.

The attack took place on March 31st at an apartment in the southern Swedish city. According to the woman's version of events, her Rottweiler snapped into action after her assailant had begun wielding a knife, local newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad reports.

During the attack the dog was stabbed twice in the throat, but not before it had succeeded in inflicting serious damage on the 32-year-old's scrotum.

The man in his turn claimed that his ex-girlfriend had set her dog on him and that he had acted in self-defence when he chose to stab the animal. He also denied stabbing his former girlfriend.

The court rejected both the self-defence claim and the assertion that he had not attacked the woman with a knife.