A MAN whose Staffy dog bit a police officer has been given a community order in court.

Christopher Thomas Hartnett, 29, of Turbary Park Avenue, Bournemouth was also ordered to pay £100 towards prosecution costs and £60 compensation during a sentencing hearing at Bournemouth magistrates’ court.

The community order, which will last for 12 months, has a supervision requirement and Hartnett must attend education, training or employment for 15 hours.

The court was told that Rocky, a brindle and white Staffordshire bull terrier, bit PC Karen Douglas when she attended an incident on August 6 last year.

PC Douglas suffered a bruise “the size of a penny” and her skin was pierced, the court was told.

Magistrates heard Hartnett had called the police to a domestic incident in the block of flats where he lives.

He denied a charge of being the owner of a dog which was dangerously out of control but was found guilty following a trial last month.

During the trial, PC Douglas told how she was “nipped” by the dog as she entered a flat and bitten by the same dog as she left the premises.

After the case Hartnett denied that the dog bit the officer and said he found a new home for Rocky in December last year, four months after the incident.

He said he only found out he was going to be prosecuted a month after the dog was re-homed.