A Drogheda man has been jailed for two years for biting another man's ear off in a fight.
Dundalk Circuit Court heard how the victim was assaulted as he tried to protect three women from a gang of men carrying bats and hurleys at a party.
Judge Raymond Groarke jailed Wayne Kavanagh (25) of Moneymore, Drogheda for two years for assault causing harm to Martin Tuite in April 2002.
The court heard Mr Tuite and his partner were at a house party in Greenbatter, Drogheda which was raided by a group of men armed with baseball bats, hurleys and sticks.
Mr Tuite saw a baseball bat being swung at three women and he moved to protect them and himself from being hit. He was attacked by Kavanagh. He felt a pain and heard a person spit and knew his ear had been bitten off, the court heard.
The top part of his ear was later found in the driveway but attempts to reattach it were unsuccessful. He has had four operations, visited the trauma unit at St James Hospital thirteen times and was off work for five and a half months.
Kavanagh was identified by another person at the party and according to the garda has come to a lot of garda attention; he has a number of convictions for public order offences.
Passing sentencing Judge Groarke said what happened "defies description and is quite inhuman."
It was a vicious assault and one that would normally attract the maximum sentence of four years. However he had to have regard to the plea of guilty and the expression of remorse including a payment of €5,000 cash that was handed over in court to the victim.