A DOG owner who ignored a warning by police to muzzle her pet has been hauled before a judge after a second attack on a little boy.

Susan Parry, 52, had been warned by an officer after the first incident that she should keep the dog muzzled and on a lead when outside but she ignored the request.

Both victims, a five-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl, are now wary of dogs after they were injured in the unprovoked attacks, the court heard.

Parry wept in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court after a judge heard that she had admitted two offences of being in charge of a dog which was dangerously out of control and causing injury.

Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting, said that the first incident happened on August 14 last year when a dad was with his seven-year-old granddaughter and his grandson, four, in the Tim Parry Park in Great Sankey.

After playing in the park for around half an hour, they started to walk home and saw two women with two dogs around 200 yards away.

One of the dogs, a three-year-old grey Weimaraner, suddenly ran towards them.

“He heard the defendant shouting but the dog did not react and he panicked but before he could do anything it had bitten his granddaughter’s right arm and twisted it causing her to fall to the ground,” said Mr Hopkins.

The dog, called Zeus, then ran off and the dad found the little girl had two puncture marks on her arm which were bleeding and, after initially going to his home, she was taken to hospital.

The defendant went back with the dad to his home and said, ‘I should not have let him off the lead’.

Parry voluntarily went to the police station the next day to report what had happened.

She was formally warned that the dog should be muzzled and kept on a lead when out exercising.

On October 25 a man was out with two little boys, one was a five-year-old.

Parry was also out at the same with with her friend and two dogs.

One dog was on a lead but Zeus wasn't.

He also wasn't wearing a muzzle.

“As the children walked past the two people Zeus started growling and chased after the young boy and bit him on his left arm," said Mr Hopkins.

"The man with Parry helped the boy by taking hold of the dog by the collar."

At hospital it was found that he had suffered two lacerations to the inner and outside of his arm and some of his fat tissue could be seen out of one of the wounds.

Mr Hopkins told the court that fortunately neither of the victims in the two incidents were as seriously injured as they might have been but both children are now nervous of big dogs.

When interviewed by police Parry, of Liverpool Road, Great Sankey, said that the little girl had been running about and screeching but did not think that was why Zeus attacked her and the other victim had also been screeching with his friend.

She admitted she had been warned after the first incident to keep the dog muzzled and on a lead.

“She said she had ignored those instruction and did not realise how serious this was," said Mr Hopkins.

Harry East, defending, said that Parry, who has no previous convictions, had voluntarily gone to the police after both incidents.

She had never previously seen the dog acting aggressively and the pet lived with her two young children who regularly had their friends around without any issue.

She has since taken steps to have the dog exercised in a secure dog exercise field and, when examined by an expert, the dog was found to be 'obedient and controllable'.

Sentencing her to three months imprisonment suspended for nine months Judge Elizabeth Nicholls said that although fortunately neither victim was seriously injured there were significant injuries and they have been left scarred and apprehensive of large dogs.

She told Parry, who kept interrupting to say 'I’m so sorry', that the second offence was the most serious because she had ignored the police advice after the first incident.

“For whatever reason you decided you knew better and took the risk," said Judge Nicholls.

She added: “The second incident could have been foreseen because it had happened before in the same sort of circumstances.”

She also told Parry that she accepted she was full of remorse and had voluntarily gone to the police each time.

The judge also ordered her to carry out 50 hours unpaid work and to pay each victim £150 compensation.

The judge made a contingency destruction order meaning that the dog must be muzzled and on a short lead when out but she decided against banning her from owning a dog.