THE owner of a pit bull terrier set it on a man three times during an argument, a jury was told.

Thomas Derosa, 24, denies telling dog Kush to ‘get’ Matthew Brewerton on June 6 last year.

Mr Brewerton said Derosa turned up drunk outside his house in Sinodun Road, Didcot, and shouted his name.

When he went outside the defendant accused him of telling others he was a “dick”.

Mr Brewerton told Oxford Crown Court yesterday: “I said ‘it is obvious you are if you are out like this in front of someone’s house’.”

After further words, Mr Brewerton said: “He pointed at me and said ‘get him Kush’.”

The builder said the dog bit his fingers and right leg before he chased it away using a shovel.

The prosecution alleges the dog returned and Derosa set him on Mr Brewerton again, biting his left leg and left forearm.

Mr Brewerton told jurors he went to the house where he believed Derosa and a young woman answered the door.

He said: “She wasn’t very pleased that I had banged the door, it was almost like I was in the wrong.”

Mr Brewerton told the defendant he would punch him if the dog did not stay away.

He told the court: “He called the dog out and told the dog to attack me again.” It bit his right hand.

Prosecutor Jennifer Dannhauser said the defence would argue Mr Brewerton came out his house and “wielded” a shovel at Derosa, and the dog attacked the witness “of his own volition”.

Derosa, of Kynaston Road, Didcot, denies three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control in a public place.

The trial continues.