A millionaire business man whose Rotweiller guard dogs attacked a postman is due to appear in court next week for a landmark case.

Robert Stewart, the managing director of Stevenage Packaging Ltd, will face charges with his daughter, Emma, after the dogs savagely attacked postman Keith Davies outside their 1.5 million home.

Mr. Davies, 54 was covering a round for a colleague at the time of the attack when the two dogs apparently burst through a gate, almost tearing off his arm and leaving him with sickening bite wounds to his back and legs.

The dog bite injuries could have been even more severe if the son of a passing bricklayer, Anthony Lunn, 44, had not alerted his father to the incident. Mr Lunn then bravely fought the animals off with an iron bar, before running one of them over with his van.

Mr Lunn said “By the time I reached him, he was in a neighbour’s garden with one arm half ripped off. The police said we saved him.”

The paramedics who attended the scene were said to have been “traumatised” by the postman’s injuries by an ambulance service spokesman.

Mr. Davies spent several weeks in hospital, undergoing numerous skin grafts and intensive therapy in order to regain the use of his injured limb.

Neighbours said that this was not the first incident involving these two dogs. They had previously attacked a Great Dane and a Labrador in separate incidents. The Labrador’s owner had even gone as far to write to the Stewarts’ expressing concern that it was “only a matter of time before something terrible happens”.

Immediately following this latest attack Mr. Stewart ordered for both Rottweillers to be destroyed.

Postal Unions have been campaigning for a change in the law to protect the 6,000 postal workers bitten by dogs each year. More than two-thirds of whom are attacked on private property.

David Joyce, safety and environment officer at the Communication Workers Union, said: “The Police and Prosecution Service have pressed hard to get this case to court. It is a testament to their hard work.

“It is right that justice is done. And if this case is successful it will set a great example.”

Labour MP Angela Smith who has also been campaigning for the Act to be amended so that all owners are responsible for their animals on private land described the recent moves as a “positive step”.

“It is the first time a police force has taken action and tested this area of the law, and I will be very interested to see the outcome,” she said.

Cambridge magistrates have adjourned the case until further notice.

The maximum penalty for having a dog dangerously out of control in a public place is a two-year jail sentence and unlimited fine.