A pensioner left an American Akita unsupervised in her garden so she could watch Emmerdale just minutes before it savagely attacked a schoolgirl, a court has heard.
Margaret Deas, of Lomond Gardens in Methil, said she had called the dog, named Chaos, inside the house but it refused to come in on the evening of July 20 last year.
The 80-year-old told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court that she went back inside the property and left him lying on the “cool cement slabs” before “accidentally” shutting the door.
Mrs Deas said she became aware something had happened when she saw her neighbour waving his arms at her around five or ten minutes later — just before the first advert break.
She was giving evidence in the trial of her grandson Brian Ralph who is accused of being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog.
A schoolgirl, who was just 13 at the time, was left with sixteen bite marks after Chaos attacked her while she was playing on a trampoline with her little cousin.
Speaking about the evening of the attack, Mrs Deas said: “He was lying on the slabs and I said ‘come in Chaos’ but he wouldn’t come in.
“I don’t know why but I shut the door and then the next thing I saw was the boy from next door came into the garden waving his arms.
“It must have been around 6:55pm because I wanted to watch Emmerdale. It was just on for about ten minutes when the boy next door was waving to me.”
Depute Fiscal Nicola Henderson asked Mrs Deas why she did not go check on the dog, to which she replied: “I was waiting for the interval of Emmerdale.”
Mrs Deas told the court that Chaos was a “good dog” who did not need obedience classes and would always do as he was told him.
But she admitted that she was unable to take the dog out for a walk because she was disabled and he was a “big, strong” dog.
She also told the court how she had previously seen Chaos placing his paws on the fence that separated her garden from the property where the attack happened.
Mrs Deas said: “Chaos would stand at the fence with his paws up on it, watching the children on the trampoline.
“He would do it when they shouted on him. It didn’t happen much, I saw it a few times and I was say to him to come in and he would.”
When asked why she would call the dog back inside, Mrs Deas said: “I didn’t want him there.
“They were strange children to him. I wanted him in the house.”
Mr Ralph, a security officer, also gave evidence yesterday and was questioned about the American Akita breed and characteristics associated with it.
Asked by Mrs Henderson if he knew about their propensity for aggression, he replied: “A dog is how you bring it up.”
He denied that his grandmother was an unfit person to look after the dog while he was at work and said there were always other “adults” in the house.
Mr Ralph, who denies the charge, was asked why he named the dog Chaos in the first place and he said: “He was always up to mischief and stuff.”
Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist QC queried: “But you didn’t call him Mischief, you called him Chaos?”
Ralph replied: “Mischief doesn’t sound very…” before failing to finish his sentence.
The schoolgirl, who cannot be named, previously told the court how she thought she was “going to die” during the terrifying attack.
The trial continues later this month.
