The former wife of racehorse owner David Cecil watched in horror as her dog was shot dead at her doorstep by a farmer who claimed it had attacked his sheep, a court heard.

Venessa Cecil said she was left numb with shock when Raymond Flintoft blasted her Jack Russell, Moses, with a shotgun. As the six-month-old pup limped away she told how Mr Flintoft finished it off by shooting again.

The court heard how minutes earlier the farmer had shot dead Mrs Cecil's other dog, two-year-old Patterdale Terrier Oris, in a field after it attacked his sheep on March 19 last year.

Mrs Cecil, of Newgate Foot, Pockley, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, said she heard a bang and a yelp and went to the door to see Mr Flintoft finish the pup off.

The 42-year-old of South House, Bransdale, Fadmoor, told the court he saw both dogs attack his sheep, and later found eight pregnant ewes dead.

He told how he shot the first dog and followed the second to the house where it started to run back towards his field. It was then he shot it.

"It wasn't the poor dog's fault, it was the owner that allowed this to happen," he said.

Mrs Cecil said it was usual for her dogs to roam unattended and didn't believe they would attack sheep.

After the shooting the court heard how Mrs Cecil wrote him a cheque for £500 compensation, but later cancelled it.

Legally Mr Flintoft can shoot dogs attacking sheep on his land but Mrs Cecil claimed the farmer was on her land when he shot the second dog.

Mr Flintoft denied trespassing with a firearm and unlawfully destroying the Jack Russell.

Magistrates heard how another local farmer, Harold Wheldon, caught a Labrador owned by Mrs Cecil worrying sheep last year and that police had considered prosecuting her over the incident.

Magistrates cleared Mr Flintoft of both charges, telling him there was no doubt he had been on Mrs Cecil's land and that he had had a firearm.

Keith Taylor, chairman of the magistrates, said: "However, we are of the opinion that you honestly and genuinely believed yourself not to be a trespasser and you believed that you had reasonable cause to be there."