RICHARD Lettley, a familiar figure delivering post in Wellington, has been attacked by a rottweiler.

The 69-year-old former butcher and milkman was left bloodied and had to be treated for bites to both hands at Musgrove Park Hospital.

It is the second such attack by a rottweiler in just over two months. Dorothy Lindfield, of Weavers Reach, was hurt by a rottweiler while walking her dog around Tonedale Mill.

Mr Lettley, who has been having daily treatment since the attack, said: “I was delivering a letter to a house in Rockwell Green and was set upon by this dog.

“It all happened so quickly and all I could think about was getting back to my car and fending off the animal at the same time. It was frightening.

“What would have happened if it had been a child? The owner of the rottweiler was not sympathetic at all – and, in fact, told me to get out of his garden. It all happened in seconds. Now I know what postmen have to put up with while delivering letters.

“By the time I got back home I had blood over my shirt and blood in the car – and bites to both hands.”

The matter is now in the hands of the police who say that the owner of the dog is ‘not apologetic’.

He was also not prepared to sign a

written undertaking to keep his dog under control.

The owner felt his dog was in his own garden protecting his property.

Richard Lettley was delivering for Welly Post, a cut-price postal service run by newsagent E J Teare, a business in South Street, Wellington, co-owned by his wife Lorraine and daughter Trish.