AN advocate has been fined after his dog attacked a five-year-old girl, injuring her.

Graeme Henderson - who represented Tommy Sheridan in his 2006 libel case against the News of the World - admitted that his dog was dangerously out of control when it attacked the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on May 26.

Dundee Sheriff Court was told the girl had gone to pat the 13-year-old border terrier, Hercules, after she saw it outside a pub in Pittenweem, Fife, but ran inside, screaming, with blood coming from her face.

Henderson, 54, of Drum Brae South, Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to a charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Sheriff George Way fined him £400 and ordered him to keep it muzzled and on a lead at all times.