Bizarre claims of foul-mouthed yob who 'booted' bullmastiff - before 'realising his pi**-taking mate had switched his dog as a joke'

A man 'booted' a dog 'like a rugby ball' - before threatening a woman who tried to intervene, telling her he'd 'smash her face in' and drown her. Michael Lee claimed to have been trying to train the bullmastiff Chunk for 'protection', by raising his leg towards him in park.

The 47-year-old denied making any connection with the animal. In bizarre scenes at Bolton Magistrates' Court, Lee claimed he realised the dog 'wasn't [his] Chunk' when it did not react to his actions.

He told magistrates his friend must have switched Chunk with his near-identical dog, also called Chunk, for 'a bit of a joke'. Rejecting his version of events, magistrates found Lee, of Hilda Street, Heywood, guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

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They also found him guilty of common assault, in relation to the threats of violence he made towards a woman. Prosecution solicitor Shahid Khan called the woman to give evidence.

She told the court she was walking through Queen's Park, in Heywood, with her wife and daughter, at around 3pm on January 22. She said it had been a 'clear day' and that it was her wife who initially spotted Lee across the lake kicking his dog.

Asked by Mr Khan to describe the kick, the witness said: "It was kind of like a kick a rugby player would perform to get the ball over the post." The animal 'yelped in pain' and cowered, the woman. She approached Lee and asked if she could buy the dog from him.

She told the court. "He said he was going to smash my face in, he was swearing at me, telling me go away, he said he was going to hang the dog, he said he was going to hang me and drown me in the