A 38-YEAR-OLD man has appeared before Blackburn magistrates charged with assaulting a 68-year-old man and his son with a metal dog chain.

Frederick Leslie Lewis, of Kipling Place, Blackburn, was ordered to stand trial at Preston Crown Court on charges of assaulting Joseph Hitchen and his son Stephen Hitchen, causing them both actual bodily harm, and assaulting his daughter Susan Hitchen.

During the incident in Stonyhurst Road, Blackburn, Lewis, who had a German Shepherd dog with him, is alleged to have claimed he was a plain clothes police officer. Lewis was remanded on bail.