A 45-year-old Angus man has denied a charge of ordering his Rottweiler dog to attack a woman and three young children in a Monifieth street.
John Pyper is alleged to have chased the woman and her children, aged 14, nine and six-years-old, with one of his dogs, while shouting for the animal to attack them during an incident last month.
Prosecutors say it happened after he allegedly threw the teenager’s mobile phone away to stop the boy calling police.
Pyper will face trial in May after he pled not guilty to a string of charges before Sheriff Derek Reekie at Forfar Sheriff Court.
The accused, of Hillhead Terrace, Kirriemuir is charged with behaving in a threatening manner in Tay Court, Monifieth on January 15, engaging in an argument with the woman and acting in an aggressive manner.
The charge also states that he prevented the 14-year-old from contacting police by throwing a mobile phone he was using out of a window and into a garden.
Pyper is then alleged to have pursued the woman with one of his Rottweilers while shouting on the dog to attack her and her children.
He faces two further separate charges of assault against the woman and the teenage boy.
Pyper is alleged to have grabbed the woman by the throat, pushed her against a wall and repeatedly punched her on the head and body to her injury.
He is also charged with assaulting the 14-year-old during the same incident by seizing him by the body, pushing him and snatching a mobile phone from his hand.
Sheriff Reekie imposed a special bail condition preventing him from approaching the woman and the boy, as well as banning him from entering Tay Court and Tay Street in Monifieth.
An intermediate diet in the case was set for April 21, with trial scheduled for May 11.
