A 77-YEAR-old woman was left with a gaping wound after being attacked by a terrier which escaped from its owner’s garden, a court heard.

Blackburn magistrates was told doctors were unable to stitch the wound together and, at one stage, were considering the option of a skin graft to close the wound.

But a district judge declined to make a destruction order on the Jack Russell terrier responsible for the attack, despite being told it had been responsible for a similar incident in 2008.

He warned owner Marie Louise Pervaiz, 51, of Norfolk Grove in Church, if there was any repeat the dog would be in trouble.

Pervaiz was made subject to a control order which requires her to keep the dog on a lead at all times when in public and take all reasonable measures to ensure it doesn’t escape from her address.

Chris Kehoe, applying for the control order under the Dogs Act 1871, said the judge had the power to order the destruction of the dog or to make a control order.

He said the victim had been walking along the pavement minding her own business when the dog ran out through a hole in a fence and bit.

Mr Kehoe said: “There is no suggestion she had provoked the dog in any way.”

Pervaiz said the dog was not a nasty dog.