Pictured: The PC and the dog he is accused of killing by locking him in a car on a blazing hot day

By
Dan Newling
Last updated at 10:37 AM on 27th July 2009

Smiling proudly with his arm around his beloved dog Jet, this is PC
Mark Johnson, the officer accused of killing two police dogs by leaving
them in his car on a blazing day.
PC Johnson is alleged to
have killed Jet, who was ten, and 18-month-old Jay-Jay by leaving them
in the vehicle while outside temperatures hit 82.5f (28c).
Animal
welfare experts said that in that heat, it would have taken only 20
minutes for the temperature inside the car to reach 116f (47c).




Teamwork: PC Mark Johnson and Jet at last year's national police championships

PC Johnson, 40, whose identity has not been revealed until now, was
previously regarded as one of the country's leading police dog
handlers - and Jet was admired as one of the best service
dogs.
Jet was considered so talented that although it had
been due to retire from routine work, the force planned to retrain it
as a firearms dog to sniff out weapons. Jay-Jay was being
trained to replace Jet. This photo was taken at last year's
national police dog championship, a prestigious event where PC Johnson
and Jet came third and for which they had qualified for the previous
four years running.
Despite his wealth of experience, PC
Johnson appears to have made one of the most basic of dog handling
mistakes on the afternoon of June 30 this year.
He locked
the dogs in his car outside Nottinghamshire-police force's HQ. Last
week the RSPCA said it will prosecute him for 'causing unnecessary
suffering to animals'. The maximum sentence is six months in prison and
a £20,000 fine.
PC Johnson has now been suspended until his court case is over.
Nottinghamshire
has a 24-strong police dog team, and a close friend and fellow dog
handler said: 'He is one of the top boys in the unit. He made a lot of
arrests and would always get involved in the action. The two dogs were
his, and his family's, life. He can't believe what has happened.
'He
left the dogs in the car while he popped into the office for a few
minutes. He got waylaid and when he came back, they were dead. 'He's devastated because he knows that this will be the end of his time as a police animal handler.'
PC Johnson was unavailable for comment.

such a sad sad shame.... :cccc: ... i expect the officer in question will have to live with this for the rest of his life, and no amount of punishment will take that away from him... stupid stupid careless man

he was stupid but i also think he is suffering too, it's obvious he didnt mean to and he did love them. :sadd:

he will definately be suffering...in many ways... public hatred.... self hatred and the punishment given by the courts!!!

Such a sad thing to happen

:cccc: