Dog put down as owner faces trial

AN UNEMPLOYED Lerwick teenager faces a trial after denying that he set his Staffordshire bull terrier on another man.

At Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday Shaun Smith, of 12 Ladies Drive, admitted one charge involving the dog in which he allowed it to enter a garden on Lerwick’s Cheyne Crescent on 10 July, where he bit another man and his dog, a springer spaniel.

However the 17 year old denies that despite receiving a notice on 14 July to muzzle the dog and keep it on a lead in a public place, he had let it loose at Da Vadill in the town on 28 July and instructed it to attack another man, telling it to “sick him”.

Smith did admit running away from two police constables the following day, locking himself in a room and forcing his body against it to prevent them getting in.

He is also charged with committing all the offences while he was on bail.

A trial has been set for 3 November, but the court heard on Wednesday that the Staffordshire bull terrier had been put down. Smith’s bail was continued.