A eight-year-old girl in a children's play area was among five people bitten by a dangerously out of control dog, magistrates heard.

Some of the victims said they were left screaming in pain and with permanent scarring after the attacks.

At Maidstone Magistrates' Court on Monday, father and son Martin and William Moses, of Hadlow Road, Maidstone, admitted a total of eight counts of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control.

The incidents happened on two days, four days apart and involved the family's pet - a white and brown Saluki named Prince.

Salukis are traditionally sight-hunting dogs used by nomadic tribes to run down their quarry.

Prosecuting, Leanne James said that on August 17 last year, Prince had escaped through an open gate in the back garden of the Moses' home.

Neighbour John Gardener had been on the drive of his home about to go shopping.

He first noticed Prince urinating over a bush on the opposite side of the road, when suddenly the dog ran at him, lunged and bit him on the knee.

Martin Moses ran out of his own home, apologised and set off in chase of Prince who had run off.

Mr Gardner received superficial injures.

But within five minutes Prince bit the leg of Harriet Leman as she walked along Marston Drive causing a significant puncture wound that required medical treatment.

Martin Moses, 59, caught up with her, apologised and again set off in pursuit of the dog.

Later, the Moses family were interviewed by two police constables at their home, advised about the need to keep Prince under control and warned that charges for having a dangerously out of control dog might follow.

But on August 21, at 1.20pm Prince escaped again. A 17-year-old youth was walking along Hadlow Road on his way to the local park when Prince appeared and without warning bit him three times.

The boy, who is autistic, returned home to get help with the wounds, and then he and his mother saw Martin Moses passing by with Prince. Moses was holding a dog lead, but Prince was not on the leash.

They went out to complain about what had happened, but Moses was abrupt with them and the dog ran off again.

Shortly after Laura Fox, a jogger, was bitten by Prince as she ran along a bridleway towards Vinters Park. William Moses, 19, appeared, said "sorry" and set off after the dog.

Finally the dog bit an eight-year-old girl who was playing in the children's play area off Ashurst Road.

William Moses was seen in the park at the same time.

Mrs James said that the police had received a large number of calls about the incidents. They visited the Moses family and removed the dog.

In subsequent interviews both men admitted the dog had escaped and bitten a number of people. They said they didn't know who or how many.

"That a child should be bitten makes matters worse..."

The court heard witness statements from some of the victims. The youth, who had to go to A&E for treatment said that he used to be comfortable around dogs but now his confidence had been shattered. The injuries had left him with a permanent scar.

Miss Fox described the attack as "horrendous" and said she had had been screaming in pain.

Her wound had bled copiously and she had to be helped home by a member of the public. Miss Fox said William Moses had treated the incident "without any sense of urgency."

Samuel Sotunde, the defending solicitor for both men, said: "It was an unfortunate set of circumstances."

The men had had Prince since he was a puppy and "had had no issues with the dog at all."

The court heard that Prince had been well fed and well looked after and that Martin Moses was bringing up his two sons single-handedly, since his wife left. Because of that, he was unemployed and claiming universal credit.

William Moses was a warehouse operator in Marden.

Neither men had any previous convictions.

Mr Sotunde suggested the court should give credit for their early guilty pleas and dispose of the case with a fine.

"It was an unfortunate set of circumstances..."

But after consideration, the chairman of the bench, Gill Fryzer, said the magistrates felt the matter was too serious to be dealt with by their sentencing powers.

She said the first incident had been bad enough, but the men had taken no heed of the police warning and had allowed the dog to escape again.

She said: "What happened next was entirely foreseeable. That a child should be bitten makes matters worse still."

The case was transferred to Crown Court for sentencing on a date yet to be set, when it will also be determined whether the dog should be put down.

The court made an order preventing the naming of the under-age victims.

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