A retired property developer told a court that she was left scarred by a dog attack in her own back garden.
Margaret McLeod broke down in the witness box as she described how a neighbour’s Staffordshire bull terrier cross jumped a 7ft fence before biting her on the hip and arm and trying to drag her to the ground.
The dog’s owner, Pauline Reid, 32, denies allowing her pet to be dangerously out of control at an address in Douglas Court, Perth, on June 16 last year.
Ms McLeod told Perth Sheriff Court the “strong and sturdy” dog, which was part labrador, attacked her as she began unlocking a gate at her property.
She said: “The reason I went to the gate was because I didn’t think the dog was out.
“It usually comes to the fence and snarls at me so I took it (the silence) to mean that it was in the house.
“I was just reaching up to unlock the snib when I saw the dog just fly over the fence at me.
“It caught my hip in its jaws.
“I tried to lift my leg to ward it off but I couldn’t so I swung my bag at it, but it tore that away from me.
“All the while I was shouting, screaming and crying.
“I don’t know how long it was until he let go but then he went to the other side and latched on to my left arm.
“He was pulling me round but I had the sense to realise that if he pulled me to the ground I would have been very vulnerable.
“I was terrified.”
She said the attack only ended when Reid and her mother, Sandra Milne, climbed the fence and pulled the dog off her.
Ms McLeod said she has a scar on her arm as a result of the attack.
She rejected a suggestion from Reid’s solicitor, Jamie Morris, that the attack had only lasted 30 seconds, and said she believed it went on for several minutes.
Sandra Milne, told the court that Ms McLeod repeatedly told her she could no longer live next door to the dog and that, as a result, she took the animal to her own home.
The trial of Pauline Reid, of Balmanno, Bridge of Earn, continues.