The owner of a bull mastiff which savaged two children has been ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to each victim.

Royston Greaves, of Withins Close, Great Horton, Bradford, has also been sentenced to 100 hours community service and banned from keeping a dog for five years.

The 32-year-old pleaded guilty at Bradford magistrates yesterday to owning a dog which was dangerously out of control in a public place.

The court heard how the young Bull Mastiff, called Dingle, attacked five-year-old Chelsea Serrant and seven-year-old Bethany Dillon in March this year.

Both attacks happened within an hour of each other as the girls played near their homes in Withins Close, Great Horton.

The dog, which was later destroyed after being handed over to police by Greaves, bit the youngsters about the head.

Chelsea needed between 78 and 100 stitches in three large tear wounds to her scalp. Bethany suffered tear wounds to the back of her head, left ear and fingers.

Mitigating, Stephen Murdoch, said it was a "horrific incident" for the girls, their families, Greaves and his family.

"There have been tears shed in a number of households as a result of what happened that day and they will continue to be shed," he added.

Today Donna Serrant said her daughter, now six, is still traumatised by the incident.

"She has terrible nightmares and is petrified of dogs. It's completely changed her personality."

Commenting on the sentence, Mrs Serrant added: "The ban might make him think twice about getting another dog and it sends out the message to other owners that this is a serious offence."

Bethany's mother Patricia added: "Compensation wasn't the issue, we just wanted the court to ban him from keeping another dog - maybe it should have been a life ban."

Magistrates heard Greaves had owned the dog since it was six weeks old and, over a period of several months, it had lived in the house causing no trouble to his four children.

Later it was kept in the garden, which had an 8ft high fence around it. When Greaves wanted to put a caravan in the garden he had to remove one of the fence panels.

The caravan was kept against the missing section and Greaves believed there was no way the dog could get out, but it had apparently crawled underneath the caravan and escaped.

e-mail: joanne.earp@bradford.newsquest.co.uk