A young mum who claimed her banned devil dog was her “bodyguard” - after it savaged another pooch during a four-week reign of terror in Ardrossan - dodged jail for a second time this week.

Nicole Wallace, 21, was spared prison earlier this year after her powerful pit bull terrier, Floyd, attacked three dogs and one of their owners.

In June she was placed on a Community Payback Order (CPO) in June banned from keeping dogs and ordered to stump up over the attacks, being told to pay their owners the £1,600 it cost vets to treat their animals’ wounds.

But she paid just £20 in compensation, missed a raft of appointments, carried out just 50 hours unpaid work and found herself back in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

She appeared from custody, after previously admitting breaching the CPO and then being remanded for failing to attend court to be sentenced for breaching the Order.

Defence solicitor Brian Holliman told Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane that Wallace, who had spent three weeks in custody, wished to turn her life around.

He explained: “This is an experience she describes to me as, ‘terrifying’.

“This is her first conviction and her first experience of any sort of custody.

“She had developed an addiction to valium and heroin but due to that period [on remand] she appears before you today clean and free of any drugs - illicit or otherwise.”

And he said Wallace, who missed previous court hearings and crucial meetings with social workers as she had been admitted to hospital and then contracted sepsis whilst in hospital, was able to provide a medical certificate to show why she had missed some of the meetings.

As she placed Wallace on another CPO, ordering her to pay £1,669 in compensation to the animals’ owners, and carry out 150 hours’ unpaid work in six months, Sheriff McFarlane said: “Now you know that I mean business.

“You will [comply with the CPO].

“If you don’t I’ll have no hesitation whatsoever in revoking the Order completely and sending you back to Polmont.”

Floyd, who has been put down for the attacks, savaged Shih tzu Cooper as he was being walked by a teenager in Island View, Ardrossan, on October 25 last year, leaving it needing emergency medical treatment.

The court heard Floyd “ran straight at her dog and clamped on to her dog’s neck with it’s teeth and wouldn’t let go” before using it’s head and neck to “rag-doll” and throw her dog about.

A stranger raced from his home and managed to pull Floyd off, but the animal, intent on tasting more blood, kept jumping up and tried to bite Cooper as the teenage girl held the pet in her arms.

Wallace then appeared on the scene, carrying a lead and a collar, said Floyd had “got out again” and took him away, saying she would come back to speak to the teenager.

But she never returned and while an appeal was ongoing to try and track her down, she posted the picture of her son next to Floyd in his basket on her Facebook page, claiming it was their “bodyguard” and making light of the attack.

It went on to attack another two dogs, biting a Labrador named Louie on November 3, 2017, after jumping on the animal’s back, and biting another Shih tzu, trying to bite a Yorkshire terrier and biting its owner on the body on November 25.

The attack on Cooper left it with four wounds, one of which had to have a drain inserted in to it, leaving his owners with a £215.80 vet bill which cost them just £75 as they had pet insurance.

Louie the Labrador was left with a punctured leg after being attacked by Floyd, costing £312.01 to treat.

The other Shih tzu was savaged so badly - being “tossed about” by the “totally demented” Floyd in what it’s owner described as “a frenzied attack” - it cost £1,302.67 to treat.

Wallace pleaded guilty to four charges, admitting having a pit bull terrier-type dog, which is banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act, and being responsible for the dog when it carried out it’s attacks.