A FATHER-OF-FOUR who was savaged by a vicious dog has won a court injunction against its owner.

Dave Taylor was attacked by the Japanese akita in his home last September while minding it for a friend, Gordon Clark.

The two men since fell out, and on April 10, Mr Taylor applied for an injunction at Darlington County Court against Mr Clark.

He said that two days before, Mr Clark had approached him outside Geneva Road post office, in Darlington, with the unmuzzled dog.

In an affidavit, he said Mr Clark, of Wordsworth Road, Darlington, told him: "You are going to be dead, you are going to be killed."

District Judge John Mainwaring-Taylor granted the injunction, forbidding Mr Clark, who did not attend the hearing, from using or threatening violence against Mr Taylor or pursuing a course of conduct amounting to harassment.

Yesterday, District Judge Richard Hall agreed that the order should continue until October 31.

Mr Taylor told The Northern Echo: "After the incident outside the post office, I was shaking and crying and I had a panic attack."

Mr Clark's dog did not have to be put down under the law after the attack because it did not happen in a public place.

But Mr Taylor, 36, who suffered severe injuries and now has no feeling in his left arm, has since campaigned for its destruction and believes that has angered Mr Clark.

A spokeswoman for Durham Police said an officer had visited Mr Clark and warned him to stay away from Mr Taylor.