A builder has been fined after his Staffordshire Bull Terrier mauled another dog and injured its owner.

Danny Lindon’s female Staffie, Honey, and male Rottweiler, Reggie, broke free from a dog pen and onto a nearby playing field, where the Staffie attacked a West Highland terrier before injuring its owner’s thumb and nose on August 27 last year.

Lindon, 44, of Timperleys, in Hintlesham, admitted two counts of being in charge of a dangerously out-of-control dog at Suffolk Magistrates’ Court in February.

Although the Staffie had since been put down due to ill-health, prosecutors sought a control order on the Rottweiler, which caused no injury during the incident.

District Judge Julie Cooper had deferred sentencing until this Wednesday in order for Lindon to prove he was able to control the Rottweiler by taking it for regular walks and training classes.

Prosecutor Colette Harper said Lindon had kept the dogs in a secure pen in his garden, but that they had escaped onto a field, where Honey attacked another dog, causing severe injuries.

“A gentleman with the dog also sustained some injury,” she added.

“It happened in the presence of the dog owner’s wife and grandchild.

“While Honey attacked the dog, the Rottweiler was running around barking, but didn’t take any more part in the action.

“The owner was left with a cut thumb and nose after trying to get Honey off his dog.”

Mrs Harper said the Crown Prosecution Service sought a control order from the court – requiring the Rottweiler to be kept on a lead at all times when outside.

District Judge Cooper told Lindon: “The dogs were essentially being kept in a run – and you didn’t think it necessary to take them out for walks.

“It seemed they didn’t know any obedience at all.”

Lindon, a self-employed groundworker, without jobs since the beginning of lockdown, was fined £100 and ordered to pay the other dog owner £100 in compensation.

District Judge Cooper, who decided not to grant a control order, said: “I don’t undermine the complainant’s injury or distress, but I have made the compensation low because the defendant has been unable to work for months. It’s not that I don’t think he deserves more.”