The owner of a dog which allegedly bit her neighbours’ five year old daughter on the arm and dragged her along the ground has denied the attack took place.

Kristina Litvinaite-Fortuin accepted that her alsatian/labrador cross called “Zorro” had bitten the girl’s mother while she was in her garden but claimed her daughter had grazed her knees after falling over on a path outside her property as “Zorro” brushed past her.

Litvinaite-Fortuin, 33, of Minsmere Way, Great Cornard has denied two offences of being the owner of a dog that caused injury to Zoe and Sarah O’Mahoney while dangerously out of control in a public place on January 23 last year.

It has been alleged the attacks took place after Gary O’Mahoney and his wife Zoe went to their neighbour Litvinaite-Fortuin’s house to discuss a house swap.

While the couple were talking to Litvinaite-Fortuin “Zorro” ran out of the front door and allegedly bit Mr O’Mahoney on the ankle and then bit his wife on the thigh as she ran towards their daughter Sarah, who was waiting on a footpath.

Mrs O’Mahoney described seeing the dog grab her daughter’s wrist with its jaws and pin her to the ground before dragging her along the ground.

“Sarah was screaming, Me, Gary and Kristina were shouting at the dog to get it off her and I managed to pick her up and run to another neighbour’s house,” said Mrs O’Mahoney.

She said that as a result of the alleged incident she had been left with a permanent scar on her leg.

She said her daughter suffered grazes to her leg where she was dragged along the ground and bruising to her wrist where she was grabbed by the dog.

She denied that she was bitten in Litvinaite-Fortuin’s garden and not on the public footpath.

She accepted her husband had been given a police caution in a March for having an air weapon in a public place following the alleged dog attack.

Giving evidence Litvinaite-Fortuin said that Zoe O’Mahoney had been in her garden and not on a footpath outside the property when she was bitten by “Zorro”.

She said that during the incident Sarah O’Mahoney had started screaming and had been running towards her parents when she fell over on a footpath.

She said she saw “Zorro” brush past Sarah but wasn’t sure if that had caused her to fall.

She denied seeing “Zorro” bite Sarah’s wrist or drag her along the ground.

She claimed that after the incident Gary O’Mahoney had threatened to kill “Zorro”. She said she heard a neighbour tell Zoe O’Mahoney that her husband was going to shoot “Zorro” and Mrs O’Mahoney had asked the neighbour to go after him and stop him.

The trial continues today.