Hartlepool pensioner sentenced at Teesside Magistrates' Court after dog in her care attacked woman who needed plastic surgery

The victim was left with blood pouring from her face after the Patterdale terrier slipped its lead and set upon her bichon frise.

When the bichon’s owner tried to separate them, the terrier called Roy charged at her, striking her on the face.

Annette Moore, 65, who was looking after Roy at the time, admitted being in charge of a dog which was dangerously out of control.

Teesside magistrates heard how she was looking after the dog for her daughter and that it escaped from Moore’s garden on May 5 last year.

It went “flying around the corner” and started biting the bichon, said prosecutor Lynne Dalton.

In trying to separate them, the bichon’s owner fell over her lead and the terrier ran at her, biting her face.

Moore arrived and took Roy away. She later contacted the victim to apologise.

The injured woman was referred to plastic surgeons and underwent an operation the next day.

In an impact statement she said she felt “very self conscious”.

The court heard Moore, of West View Road, Hartlepool, had kept dogs all her life without problems.

The terrier was undergoing training at the time and had been wearing two leads.

Alex Wood, defending, said: “When she saw the injury she was absolutely horrified and extremely sorry.”

Moore was given a two-year conditional discharge and must pay the victim £500 compensation.

District Judge Helen Cousins will will consider the fate of the dog, which has since been rehomed on a farm in Rochdale, next month.