A Gaelic football star has escaped a prison sentence after admitting to having an illegal breed of dog at his County Tyrone home.

Gerard Cavlan, 30, of Willow Gardens, Dungannon, was caught with an unmuzzled and badly scarred pit bull terrier last April.

He pleaded guilty to possession of a dangerous dog at Dungannon Magistrates Court and was fined a total of £650 and instructed to pay kennelling, veterinary and legal fees of more than £4,300. He was also banned for five-years from owning a terrier-type dog.

Cavlan, made a last-minute guilty plea and a magistrate insisted he would have been sent to prison if he had contested the charges and been convicted.

Magistrate Eamon King also told Cavlan, a member of the Tyrone squad which lifted the 2003 All-Ireland Gaelic football championship, to remember his position as a role model.

“You have to be aware that people do look up to you and people do tend to emulate you and want to emulate you,” he said.

“We want people to imitate you in all that’s good – i.e. your successful footballing career – not in the type of activity that takes place in back yards in the dark of night involving one animal going face-to-face against another.”

Cavlan admitted five offences including possession of a pit bull, taking it out in public without a muzzle and having no licence for three other Staffordshire terriers.

However, Cavlan’s lawyer Michael Duffy, stressed the dog belonged to his client, but he had only collected it from kennels for a Dublin man, who attended the court hearing.

The plan was allegedly to deliver the dog, but Cavlan had taken it for a two-minute walk to stretch its legs.

“He was doing somebody a good turn and he’s paying a very heavy price for it,” Mr Duffy said.

(JM/SP)