Father of girl savaged by dog speaks of the 'nightmare' attack As we were packing up to leave, a dog suddenly ran up to our family and immediately attacked Evie, injuring my wife who was instinctively trying to protect her. Our children had been nowhere near the dog previously. The first time we saw it was as it charged towards them. The children were very frightened and tried to run to the safety of Sarah and I. Evie told me after that she had run as fast as her feet could carry her. This was a totally unprovoked and savage attack. The dog attacked on multiple occasions and at one point, circled Evie and my wife in what looked like a 'shark attack' that you would see on TV. I hit the dog a number of times, trying to make it let go of my beautiful little girl and wife but the dog continued to attack her, despite our best efforts to protect her. The dog was not on a lead and there was no obvious sign of the owner at first. Evie and my wife ended up on the ground and the dog ripped the majority of Evie's right ear off. Sarah lay across Evie to try and protect her and as a result has suffered multiple injuries to her arms. There was a lot of blood. The attack took place on a family trip to Pole Hill, Chingford, close to their home in North East London on Saturday. He said that his daughter was already scared of dogs and this was going to make it very difficult for them to ever go anywhere near places where they were being walked. "It's going to make it difficult for us to ever go to a forest, to ever go over to a park, to ever be on a beach," he said. She's going to major constructive surgery at another date. I'm going to be stuck with that image in my head. Mr Smith said his daughter was taken to hospital and later transferred to a specialist unit where she will continue to be treated for the time being. He added: "Evie is a remarkable little girl who is very popular and full of life and loves to sing and dance. We are reading her stories and trying to keep her upbeat. She understands what has happened to her. We are a very close and loving family and this has totally devastated us. We are all in a state of shock about what has happened and thank people for their concern and wishes. He said that eventually he would like tighter controls on the ownership of dangerous dogs and more dog-free parks. Det Sgt Stuart Cheek, of Metropolitan Police, said: "This was an appalling incident that left a young child with serious injuries which are likely to scar her for life." Gary Hindley, 56, an unemployed builder of Chingford, north east London, who initially fled the scene before later handing himself into police, pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dog that was out of control in a public place and caused injury. It emerged that the dog, which is to be destroyed, had acted aggressively earlier in the week. He will be sentenced at a later date.