Canine DNA used to convict British man who used dog as ‘weapon’ against teenager

Dog DNA helps convict man who used pet as weapon

LONDON — A man who used his dog to attack a teenager whom he then stabbed to death was sentenced Friday to at least 24 years in jail for murder.

Chrisdian Johnson, 22, was convicted after police used analysis of DNA from his dog, Tyson, to prove the animal’s blood was at the crime scene and on Johnson’s clothes — helping place him at the scene.

Prosecutors say Johnson set the pitbull-mastiff cross on 16-year-old Seyi Ogunyemi in a London park and then stabbed the boy six times.

Judge Christopher Moss told Johnson he used “two fearsome weapons” in the April attack, the result of a feud between rival street gangs.

“The first was your pitbull-cross dog, which I have no doubt you had trained to attack and bring down your prey,” the judge said. “The second was the knife with which you stabbed Seyi Ogunyemi to death.”

At London’s Central Criminal Court, Moss ordered Johnson to serve a minimum of 24 years in prison for the killing.

Johnson was arrested as he fled, covered in blood which turned out to belong to his dog, which had been stabbed in the melee, and the victim.

The case used a new technique for analyzing canine DNA with greater accuracy. Scientist Rob Ogden, who helped develop the technique, said it “allows you to identify dogs to a fairly high level of certainty.” Police said the chances the blood was not Tyson’s were a billion to one.

Johnson was convicted Thursday of Ogunyemi’s murder and the attempted murder of another teen.

Police said they would apply for an order to have Tyson put down.

(This version CORRECTS corrects breed of dog in light of new information.)