Jail time for ear-biting player
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:12
A Welsh player has paid the ultimate price for his decision to take a mid-match snack on an opponent's ear, when he was jailed for a "barbaric" attack on an opponent who lost a chunk of his ear in the on-field assault.
WalesOnline reports that Gareth Glyn Jones, 25, was sentenced to 12 months in prison after earlier being convicted of unlawful wounding by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court.
The victim, flank Daniel Hobbs, also 25, was playing for Whitchurch Thirds against Star RFC on December 15 last year and the game was only 10 minutes old.
Jones, of Picton Road, Rhoose, approached Hobbs after the Whitchurch player was impeded from taking a penalty.
Judge Stephen Hopkins said: "Following repeated professional fouls you confronted him [Hobbs] and held him by the upper arms and lent forward to whisper to him then deliberately bit the top left ear.
"He cried out.
"You repeated you had only punched him but you were arrested after the game."
Hobbs needed more than 20 stitches to his injury, but, during the crown court trial, Jones denied the biting and said his opponent had instigated the violence.
Judge Hopkins QC said: "I'm satisfied this was deliberate biting, but not with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
"But this remains an appalling piece of gratuitous violence.
"The unprovoked, mindless and deliberate biting of an opponent in a rugby match can only be described as a barbaric act.
"You showed not a hint of remorse during the trial."
