Nose-biting ruled out as selfdefence

Attack at boozy party was assault, judge rules

On the night of Oct. 10, 2014, friends and family gathered for a wake in the Pictou, N.S., home of Howard Miller to remember the avid hunter and handyman.

But the grieving quickly devolved into a bloody melee in the kitchen — a booze-fuelled brawl that saw one mourner chomp off part of the nose of another.

It was left to provincial court Judge Del Atwood to steer through the “alcohol-thickened fog” and determine if the nose biting was aggravated assault or selfdefence.

In a decision released Wednesday, Atwood found while the nose biter, Randall MacLean, 49, a friend of the Miller family, was unnecessarily “manhandled,” his argument he latched on to Paul Gaudet’s nose to maintain his balance was “farfetched and fantastic.”

“Apart from acrobats such as the iron-jaw trapeze artist memorialized in the well known painting by Degas, nobody keeps his balance with his teeth. … People do not bite into other people to maintain posture,” the judge ruled.

Because just about everyone at the gathering was drunk, court heard many conflicting accounts of what happened.

Mary Jean Malloy testified tensions began when MacLean ordered her to get him a drink. Gaudet, who was already “kind of passing out” at the kitchen table, told MacLean not to talk to his sister like that.

Later, Malloy said, MacLean started rolling a joint, which upset Jerry Miller, Howard Miller’s son. Miller picked up MacLean and took him over to the back door with the help of others. During the scuffle, MacLean bit onto Gaudet’s nose.

Malloy said she hollered at him to let go, but MacLean hung on for at least two minutes, resulting in severe injury.

Dr. Marvyn Tolba said the tip of Gaudet’s nose was partially amputated.

Jerry Miller testified that he sensed a fight was going to start between MacLean and Gaudet, and asked MacLean to leave.

He denied manhandling the man, saying he only put his hand on MacLean’s shoulder to guide him to the door.

Gaudet said he had been drinking all day and all night and couldn’t recall how his nose was chewed off.

In his defence, MacLean testified someone “sucker punched” him in the kitchen and he reflexively put his arm around Gaudet’s head to shelter his body as others began “pounding on him.”

But even though Atwood found MacLean guilty, he also admonished just about everyone in the home that night for poor decision making, noting: “A wake is meant to be a time for sober and solemn reflection of a life well lived.”

MacLean will return to court for sentencing Jan. 3.