bitten by a Rottweiler during a restaurant inspection, a court heard yesterday.

Susan Catherine Hill told Magistrates' Court she screamed after the dog sank its teeth into her left ankle.

"I was in a lot of pain. I wanted to sit down and examine the wound. I was shaking,'' she said.

Ms Hill said a customer at the Pizza House Restaurant in Shelly Bay drove her to hospital where she underwent X-rays to see whether the bone was affected.

She added she received 16 stitches to wounds on both sides of her ankles.

The alleged incident at the Shelly Bay restaurant occurred on June 10.

Restaurant manager Franz Eganolf admits owning an unlicensed dog. But he denies being the keeper of a dog which caused injury to another person.

Eganolf's lawyer Mr. Charles Vaucrosson has argued the prosecution used the wrong legislation under which to charge his client.

"I submit he is not guilty to the offence he has been charged with,'' he told Magistrate the Wor. Charles-Etta Simmons.

Ms Simmons adjourned the case until tomorrow afternoon so the prosecution could clarify the charge.

Yesterday, prosecutor Sgt. Earl Kirby took his witness Ms Hill through the events of June 10.

Ms Hill said her job involved enforcing food and hygiene legislation.

On the day she was bitten she had gone to the Pizza House.

"On arriving at the establishment I was preparing to conduct a routine food hygiene inspection and was also preparing to make some inquiries concerning an alleged food poisoning case,'' she said.

She said she told the staff who she was and began her inspection.

After inspecting the kitchen and a room at the back of it, she went through a rear door and entered a yard where there was a "refrigerated storage'' area.

There a female employee talked to her and "among other things, she said there was a dog out here, but she did not say so with any warning in her voice''.

"I did not pay that much attention to her comment. As I was talking to this lady from my side came a large dark brown, black dog.'' Ms Hill said the dog did not appear to be on a chain.

"I was just about to go through the door when the dog turned its head round and bit me on the left ankle. "I screamed and turned around to the dog, and luckily it let go.'' Ms Hill added she had been unaware there was a dog on the premises, and there were no signs.

She had, however, seen some food containers tucked away in the corner of the yard.

Mr. Vaucrosson suggested to Ms Hill she knew about the dog. Ms Hill denied this.

Eganolf, of Hamilton Parish, told the court the dog had been on the premises for about eight years as a security measure.