A DELIVERY driver was told two barking Great Danes just wanted to “say hello” moments before one leapt at him and bit the end of his nose off.

Stephen McQuiggin yesterday spoke of the “sledgehammer” blow when one suddenly attacked as he stood on the path outside the address in Chester-le-Street.

Durham Crown Court heard the self-employed driver suffered “horrendous” injuries and he had needed four operations to rebuild his nose.

Mr McQuiggin said as he approached the house in Flodden Close, he became aware of the boisterous dogs in the garden with householder Carol Crawford, on the evening of September 7 last year.

Wary of them, he told her he would not pass a van and wheelie-bin, which were blocking the driveway, but Mrs Crawford shouted: “Don’t be silly, they only want to say ‘hello’.”

Mr McQuiggin said he threw the soft package to Mrs Crawford, but after passing a delivery confirmation pad to her to sign, one of the Great Danes, Jess, suddenly leapt at him.

He told the jury: “It felt like I was hit with a sledgehammer.

The dog jumped over the wheelie-bin and bit my nose.

All I can remember was the excruciating pain.”

He said Mrs Crawford screamed for her husband, Mark, who stemmed the blood with a tea towel.

Mr Crawford took Mr McQuiggin to hospital, but after initial treatment he was referred for plastic surgery.

The 54-year-old single parent said returning from hospital, Mr Crawford withdrew £200 which he gave him, urging him not to report the incident to police.

“He was terrified that the dogs would be destroyed because they classed them as their children,” said Mr Mc- Quiggin.

Defence barrister Tony Davis said the money was offered to cover Mr McQuiggin’s taxi fares and other expenses.

Mr McQuiggin denied Mr Davis’s claims that the incident happened on the driveway, and not in a public place, on the path, and that he was only scratched with a claw and not bitten.

Police community support officer Adrian Richards told the court that when taken to kennels two days after the incident, the dog bit the manager’s hand as he checked for a microchip number.

Mrs Crawford, 47, denies being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control in public.

The trial continues.