A MAN who deliberately sliced off the top of another man’s ear during a brutal gang attack has been sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.
Jailing Anthony Doran, the judge, Recorder Tania Griffiths QC described it as “an horrific attack” and said that but for the police arriving on the scene it could have been even more vicious.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that before the gang ran off after the sustained attack the victim’s trousers and underpants had been pulled down and one of the gang had threatened to cut off his privates.
Doran, 33, of Marlborough Gardens, Ashurst, Skelmersdale, had been convicted by a jury of wounding James Lloyd with intent after a trial.
Charlotte Kenny, prosecuting, said the key witness was a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was awoken at about 4.30am on October 22, 2011 by the sound of men shouting outside the window of her home in the Bellfield area of Skelmersdale.
From her vantage point she witnessed “what can only be described as a savage and mob handed attack by a group of men upon another as he lay prone and helpless on the floor,” she said.
They were stamping on his face and kicking him and Doran knelt down next to him and asked the others to stop kicking so he could talk to him. But instead, after telling his companions, “watch this,” he used a knife to slice off the top of the victim’s ear.
The group then continued to kick Mr Lloyd as he lay in a pool of blood and only ran off when someone shouted that the police were coming, said Miss Kenny.
The victim, who recalled running after leaving a club where the gang had also been drinking, remembered being hit by something to the back of his head which caused him to fall and then being kicked in the face. The next thing he remembered was waking up at Southport Hospital.
Doran, formerly of Fairhaven, Skelmersdale, was arrested later the same day and blood from the victim was found on his T-shirt, jeans and trainers. Doran admitted being at the scene but denied being an assailant and said he had been trying to help Mr Lloyd which was how his blood got onto his clothing.