A teenage girl broke down in tears as she told a courtroom how she and her beloved pet spaniel were attacked by dogs in a park.

Lucinda McGrath, 16, said she had suffered from “constant flashbacks” of the attack, which left her springer spaniel Ted so badly injured he had to be put down.

Prosecuting at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Louise Asme said defendant Clare Breen had been walking her two dogs, a white American bulldog and a brown bull mastiff-Labrador cross, in Lund Park, Keighley, on July 29 last year, when the white dog got loose and bit passer-by Lucinda.

She said: “That dog bit her on the hand then immediately began to attack her dog. It tore open the side of her dog.”

She said Breen’s second dog then joined in the attack on the spaniel, leaving it with such serious injuries it was put to sleep by a vet.

Lucinda sobbed as she gave her evidence to the courtroom via a video link.

She said she had been walking Ted in the park, when she heard another dog walker fall down behind her.

She said: “I heard her slip so I turned round to see if she was okay. I asked if she was okay and she said she was fine.”

But she said as the woman was getting up, one of her two dogs managed to get loose.

She said: “It was coming back and forth and barking and jumping up and down, after my dog.”

Lucinda said the woman was calling out to the white dog while trying to tie her brown dog to a bin.

She said: “The white dog kept coming up to me and my dog and it jumped up and bit me on the hand, then it went for my dog.”

Lucinda said the brown dog then got loose and joined in the attack on her pet, and she tried to punch and kick them to get them off.

She said she had been left with “canine teeth” marks on her hand.

She said: “I have nightmares about what happened, constant flashbacks.”

Breen’s defence lawyer Michael Collis agrees the spaniel was badly injured in the incident but is disputing whether Lucinda was bitten.

Mr Collis said: “I’m going to suggest that the injuries to your hand were caused by you striking the dog.”

Lucinda replied: “No, it happened before. The white dog bit me, then went after my dog.”

Breen, 31, of Malsis Crescent, Keighley, denies being the owner of a dog which caused injury while dangerously out of control.

The trial continues.