Jailed for biting his new colleague’s nose
CALL CENTRE WORKER EXPLODES INTO AGGRESSIVE RAGE
A NIGHT out with new colleagues ended in bloodshed when one of them bit the nose of another in an act of unprovoked “savagery”.
Attacker Danny Bell had been getting on well with victim Daniel Robins after the pair were among a group of people to complete a training course together at a call centre company.
On the Friday night, those on the course decided to go out in Newcastle to celebrate and in the early hours of the next morning, Bell invited Mr Robins to his ex-girlfriend’s flat for more drinks.
But the friendly atmosphere suddenly changed dramatically when Mr Robins enquired about the situation between Bell and his ex, who was at the flat.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Bell put his arm around Mr Robins’ neck in a headlock and put him down on the floor.
Mr Robins pleaded “what you doing, we are supposed to be friends”, but Bell was out of control.
Prosecutor Rachel Masters said: “Before he could do anything he bit his nose. He described it as a hard bite and the defendant locking onto it, in fact.
“He remembers trying to get him off him and remembers the defendant punching him to the head.
“He thinks he passed out at some point and the next thing he knew he woke up in the garden, disorientated, in extreme pain and bleeding heavily from his nose.”
He was taken to hospital, where he was found to have a fracture to a nasal bone and had lost skin from the tip of his nose.
Miss Masters said it was “by luck rather than judgement” that he did not lose any flesh from his nose and it seems to have healed well.
Bell, 29, of Banbury Road, Kenton, Newcastle, who has three previous convictions, including for battery, pleaded guilty to inflicting GBH on November 11 last year and was jailed for 27 months.
Recorder Carl Gumsley told him: “You decided to set upon him for absolutely no sensible reason I can see, it was wholly unprovoked.
“It was a sustained assault and it was more than just biting of the nose.
“You chose to use what was, quite frankly, savagery by biting somebody’s nose who, I consider, was not a threat to you, and you caused a serious injury.”
Paul Cross, mitigating, said: “He expresses considerable remorse.
“From the point of view of society and him personally, an immediate prison sentence is not the just outcome in this case, in my submission.”
Mr Cross said Mr Robins continued working for the employer, as did Bell for a time.
He added: “He found it difficult when he passed the complainant in the corridor.
“The job is still available to him but with the stress of this, he has found it difficult and is on benefits at the moment.”