Jailed dog-owner released

Jailed dog-owner Brian Hill was released from Paremoremo prison yesterday morning, after serving a month of a two-month sentence.

Mr Hill handed himself over to prison authorities last month after abandoning an appeal against his sentence for owning the dog that mauled 6-year-old Carolina Anderson.

His agent, Colin Amery, said Hill almost collapsed when told on Tuesday that his friend, Thomas Owen, had been assaulted in Mt Eden Prison.

"He's deeply shocked that this could happen to his friend in a so-called safe environment ... and he's obviously well aware that this is not an uncommon occurrence."

Mr Amery said Hill had always been safe, both while in Mt Eden and after his transfer to Paremoremo.

He had not expected Mr Owen to be faced with any problems of violence.

"[Hill] was safe, I would say, because there were enough people in the prison who took the viewpoint that a person who cared about animals was worthy of protection," Mr Amery said.

* Mt Eden inmate Joseph Patrick Pere, 24, appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday charged with injuring Owen with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was remanded in custody to appear next week.

Pere, who was wearing a scarlet T-shirt and scarlet trousers and whose arms were tattooed, kept his head down and was hunched over when he appeared for sentence on other matters before Judge Josephine Bouchier.

Pere was disqualified from driving for six months and sentenced to two months' imprisonment, to be accumulative with his present term for dangerous driving and failing to stop for a police car.

He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, to be served concurrently, on charges of attempted burglary and unlawfully taking a vehicle, and convicted and discharged on a charge of driving while forbidden.