DOG owner Darren Newman of Marlborough has been ordered to keep a lurcher under control after magistrates heard how it joined another dog in a tug of war over a cat, leaving it dying from massive injuries.

Newman, who lives in Homefields in Marlborough, failed to attend the court in Devizes on Tuesday, but a complaint that he had a dangerous dog which he failed to keep under control was upheld by the magistrates who heard the case in his absence.

Newman, who had failed to attend six previous hearings, faces a further similar charge involving the same dog but this was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Cat owner Gloria Fabbro was visibly upset as she told magistrates how she was powerless to do anything other than call for help as two lurchers owned by Newman ripped apart her nine-year-old cat Misty, with one holding its head in its teeth and the other hanging on to its hindquarters.

By the time neighbour's son Leigh Chandler chased the dogs away all he could see of the cat was "a black ball of fur" on the ground.

Mrs Fabbro told magistrates that she was in her house when her own dog barked and she looked out to see two lurchers attacking her cat.

"I opened my door and screamed to try to get the dogs off my cat but I was not able to do anything."

Mr Chandler recounted that he had chased a creamy-yellow mottled lurcher type dog from his garden. "I went to see where the dog had gone and I saw the next door neighbour standing in her front garden crying and saying her cat had been killed. I could see what looked like a black ball of fur lying on the ground."

Mr Chandler said he saw two lurchers, the yellow mottled one and a reddish-brown dog, standing over the dead cat, and he ran down to chase the dogs away.

He went down the road to see both of the dogs being held by Newman. Police later took him to Newman's home, where he identified the yellow dog but was not certain about the second animal.

Newman said his dogs probably escaped from his garden through a hole in the fence, which he blamed on vandals. He claimed cats had taunted his dogs while they were contained in the garden by walking along the fence and sitting on the shed roof.

Jonathan Hill, prosecuting counsel, said that when Newman heard the dogs had killed a family's cat he laughed when he told WPC Helen Barnes: "Express my condolences."

The yellow mottled bitch has been killed on the road since the attack, but magistrates ordered Newman to keep the dog known as Red under proper control and made an order for him to pay the prosecution costs of £185.