An Angus woman banned from keeping dogs following two attacks claimed subsequent barking at her home was from an episode of crime drama, Frost.
Fiona Borders, from Brechin, was found guilty in April this year of allowing a pack of Staffordshire bull terriers to carry out two attacks in the county.
The pensioner is now alleged to have kept a similar dog at her Montrose Street home in May, just one month after the order was handed down, following an anonymous tip-off to police.
But at Forfar Sheriff Court on Tuesday the 76-year-old claimed officers at her door had heard a dog bark from a programme she was watching on TV.
Borders conducted her own defence in front of Sheriff Pino Di Emidio during a trial which heard Crown evidence from two police officers.
Depute fiscal Jill Drummond questioned constables Andrew Howard and Gregor Deeming, who had paid her a visit on May 10 and 11.
PC Howard said police had received information at the Brechin office at 12.30pm on May 10 that a female was in possession of a dog, breaching a court order.
“We attended, knocked on the front door and there was no reply, however there was clearly a dog barking inside,” he said.
The officers attended at 8am the next day and encountered an identical scenario.
Borders attended the police office at 8.45am and was cautioned, charged and taken into custody before the matter came to trial.
Part of Borders’ defence is that she understood “keeping dogs” to mean their ownership alone.
She admitted to keeping a dog for a third party on May 10, at different times to those alleged.
Borders added: “The question is whether my dogs were going to rip people to pieces in a public place, not whether they are going to do something in my own home.”
However, the sheriff dismissed her claims that the previous judgment was unclear.
In April, following a two-day trial before Sheriff Kevin Veal at Forfar, Borders was convicted of three charges under the Dangerous Dogs Act in relation to offences in Brechin and Montrose.
Borders denies contravening the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 Section 4 (8) a on May 11 at her home address by having a dog in her custody, having been disqualified from keeping dogs for 10 years on April 25.
The trial will continue on December 10.