A German Shepherd dog which sank its teeth into a meter reader’s leg has been given a ‘suspended death sentence’.

Bailey the 10-year-old Alsatian attacked Chelmsford man Nigel Scott when he walked around the back of a cottage in Fyfield, near Ongar.

Yesterday (February 4), magistrates in Chelmsford found the dog’s owner Melonie O’Hearn guilty of having a dog that was dangerously out of control.

If the German Shepherd is not now kept under proper control it will have to be put down, with magistrates ordering a ‘contingent destruction order’.

Ex-policeman Mr Scott, in his 50s, walked round the back of part-time pub worker O’Hearn’s ‘irregularly shaped’ home on April 15 last year.

Believing it was the way to the front door, Mr Scott had seen a sign warning ‘Beware of German Shepherd’.

The dog was lying on the ground and began barking when it saw him walk beside the low picket fence, but he said he thought someone would come out to see who was approaching.

He said: “As I looked to see if the gate was closed I realised it was wide open.

“I was two feet from the gate when the dog came through it.

“I froze because the dog was barking aggressively at me.

“I could see it was going to jump.

“I twisted to try to defend myself from the bite and it bit me on my left thigh.

“It came at speed and didn't give me any chance to move away or shut the gate.”

Mr Scott, who was left with a puncture wound to the top of his left thigh, said he had never been bitten by a dog in his 27 years with the police, and that the incident had made him ‘nervous’ of German Shepherds.

He called out for someone to take the dog off, and O’Hearn came out and apologised.

After he said the dog should be tethered, he claimed she replied “He’s a guard dog.”

In her defence, O’Hearn said Bailey was a rescue dog she had had since 2007.

He was now nearly 11 years old and had undergone over two years training.

She said he was a pet, not a guard dog, and claimed Mr Scott should have gone to her front door - not the back garden.

The Alsatian began growling and barking when she was putting shopping away in her kitchen, she said.

She added: “I looked out the window and saw a man entering through my side gate and enter my back garden.

“I ran out and the man said 'Get the dog off, he's bitten me'.”

Magistrates fined O’Hearn £180 with £325 costs, and ordered her to pay £200 compensation to Mr Scott.