A woman has blasted the courts for a “catastrophic” failure to clamp down on the owner of a dangerous dog.

Amy Ponnampalam’s dachshund, Annie, was mauled to death in 2014 by a dog owned by the same family whose boxer killed Cole Simons’s King Charles spaniel last week.

Ms Ponnampalam said: “I am so incredibly sorry for what the Simons family are going through, and it is tragic that this has been allowed to happen a second time.

“The failure of the DPP [Department of Public Prosecutions] and courts in protecting the public interest has been absolutely catastrophic in this case and the consequences will now be felt by another bereft family for many years.

“I just hope that this time a fitting penalty is issued so as to put an end to this degree of negligent dog ownership such that this will never happen again.”

Ms Ponnampalam’s comments came after Simons’s 12-year-old spaniel, Venus, was killed in the attack last week.

Mr Simons, a One Bermuda Alliance MP, found the family pet dead in his backyard, with blood visible and evidence of another dog in the area.

Neighbours told The Royal Gazette that the offending dog was owned by John Tomlinson, who lives near by.

His wife, Sarah Tomlinson, later confirmed that the dog was Mr Tomlinson’s and had been put down.

Ms Ponnampalam said she believed the same dog that killed her dachshund and critically injured her other dog was responsible.

She said: “I spent three years pursuing a criminal case against Mr Tomlinson following the attack on my two dogs in which one was killed; charges which Mr Tomlinson pleaded guilty to yet was astonishingly allowed to walk free by the courts last year.”

Mr Tomlinson maintained not guilty pleas to the charges relating to the fatal dog attack for more than two years and over several hearings but changed his plea on the day he was to stand trial.

Magistrate Archibald Warner imposed an absolute discharge allowing Mr Tomlinson to walk free from court and imposed no sanctions on the dog responsible for the attack.

Larry Mussenden, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said: “The DPP’s office will not comment on a matter that may be under investigation.”

Mr Tomlinson could not be reached for comment.