A JUDGE today denied failing to keep her German Shepherd dog under control.
Judge Beatrice Bolton, 57, who sits at Newcastle Crown Court and lives at Rothbury, Northumberland, is charged under section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act following an alleged incident close to her home on May 31.
Judge Bolton was not in court during the short hearing before Carlisle magistrates today, when her solicitor Geoffrey Forrester entered a not guilty plea to the single charge in her absence.
The case was adjourned until December 13 for trial.
Judge Bolton went to Newcastle's Church High school, and then studied at Sheffield University.
She was called to the bar in 1975, before becoming assistant recorder in 1994 and recorder between 1994 and 2001.
Throughout that period, she worked as both a prosecutor and a criminal defence barrister and became a circuit judge in 2001.
The case against her was moved from Alnwick magistrates in Northumberland to Carlisle Magistrates Court in Cumbria due to her high-profile status in the North East's legal world.
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