Get the inside track on the big stories from Liverpool Crown Court with our weekly newsletter Subscribe now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A Staffordshire bull terrier with a history of attacking a neighbour's dog was granted a stay of execution after she seriously bit another owner's hand.

Sarah Roberts, 41, was holding her newborn grandchild in the back yard of her Old Swan home when Missy escaped and ran out into a back alleyway.

There, Missy met a pet called Bella and a fight began, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

The smaller dog's owner - Steve Boyd - tried to prise Missy's jaws off Bella, but in the process he was bitten on the finger.

That wound required surgery at hospital and his finger to be stitched amid fears his tendons had been damaged.

Today, Judge Louise Brandon decided against an immediate destruction order, and instead issued a series of strict conditions that Roberts must follow with her pet.

Phillip Hall, prosecuting, said there had been four previous fights between Missy and Bella, and at the time of the latest incident, on May 16, the Staffy was subject to a control order, issued in February 2017.

That followed an earlier flashpoint between Missy and another dog which left that pet with significant injuries, which needed £3,000 of vets fees to be paid.

In 2017, Roberts, of Cowper Road, breached that order following another fight which led to Roberts, who didn't have pet insurance at the time, being fined and disqualified from owning a dog for 12 months.

"The breach should have served as a warning," Mr Hall said.

After the latest bust-up between Missy and Bella, Mr Boyd declined to make a complaint, but he did give a hearsay account to a police officer.

He also sustained a leg injury in the incident, but it is not clear exactly how that occurred.

Missy had escaped while Roberts' daughter was putting out the bins, and left Bella was a puncture wound to her chest, which needed antibiotics treatment.

Roberts, who admitted a single offence of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control, avoided jail.

She was given a 12 months community order, with a 20-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement, and 150 hours of unpaid work.

Missy was made subject to a contingency order, meaning she must be kept under control in public, muzzled and on a lead no more than two metres, by a person over the age of 16, and away from the Cowper Road alleyway where the latest attack took place.

Lionel Grieg, defending Roberts, said his client had shown "genuine remorse" and added: "It wasn't intentional, it was an escape and an oversight."

She has since moved in with her sick mother who is suffering with lung cancer.