A PENSIONER who used his walking stick to stop a pit-bull terrier attacking his spaniel was punched by the owner's boyfriend, a court heard.

Asthmatic William Vardy, 74, was punched to the ground by drunken Lee Knaggs, 31, in a dispute over the dogs. York magistrates heard Knaggs damaged one of Mr Vardy's teeth in the attack and when the pensioner's 72-year-old wife, Rennie, tried to intervene, Knaggs knocked her over.

The court ordered Knaggs, of Milner Street, Acomb, to pay the couple £437 compensation plus £55 costs and complete 80 hours' community punishment and a year's community rehabilitation after admitting two charges of assault.

"It was an unprovoked attack on two vulnerable people who were totally unknown to you, and to say your judgement was clouded by drink is totally irrelevant," senior magistrate Graeme Robertson told him.

Trevor Beddoe, prosecuting, told the court how the incident began on New Year's Eve, 2001. Mr Vardy was out walking his spaniel at about 6.30pm when a pit bull terrier grabbed it by the neck. He managed to save his dog by beating the terrier with his walking stick, but went to bed suffering from shock when he got home.

Shortly after midnight, Knaggs arrived at the couple's house and when Mr Vardy opened the door, Knaggs burst in and attacked him. For Knaggs, Harry Bayman said the terrier belonged to Knaggs' girlfriend, who was very upset by the dog fight.

He had planned to see in the New Year with her after drinking with friends, but after hearing her account about what had happened earlier that evening, he went round to the pensioners' house. He had handed himself in to police later and accepted that his behaviour had got out of hand.

Knaggs did not comment as he left court.

- Knaggs, a lifeguard, received an ambulance service award for helping to save the life of a 62-year-old swimmer who collapsed with a heart attack in Edmund Wilson swimming baths, Acomb, in 1999.

Updated: 10:19 Saturday, March 02, 2002