A 31-year old man involved in an ear-biting incident has been spared jail after his victim urged against a prison sentence.
Christopher Hugh Gerard Kenny was handed a 15-month sentence, suspended for a year, for the violent incident in the Waterworks Park in Belfast which was witnessed by an early morning jogger.
He appeared at a remote hearing at Belfast Crown Court, where it emerged that in a victim impact statement the injured man described what happened as a drunken fight that got out of hand.
The injured man, who lost part of his ear in the July 2013 incident, said he has accepted the scarring and believes it is a reflection of his past.
In the statement, he says "the past is the past", and revealed he now helps teenagers battling with similar issues he experienced when he was younger.
Describing himself as a "happy man with a fiancee and a son", the victim said: "I believe that everyone deserves a second chance in life for the poor choices they have made and I cannot stress enough that I would not like to see this man go to prison because of this incident.
"I firmly believe that he should be given a second chance for something he did wrong seven years ago. His life is probably far different from what it was then, just as mine is."
Kenny, from Annadale Embankment in Belfast, admitted wounding the man and threatening to kill him during the violence incident which occurred at around 6am on July 10, 2013.
Judge Fowler said it was accepted by the Crown there had been a "significant and unexplained delay" in bringing this case to court, and in the intervening seven years Kenny "has turned his life around."
The Judge said Kenny was bullied at school, has experienced adverse life experiences and had "many difficulties growing up."
The Judge added: "Given all that I have read and been told about this defendant, I am satisfied he is not dangerous and he does not pose a risk of serious harm to others."
Handing Kenny the suspended sentence, Judge Fowler told him to stay out of trouble for the next year, or he would face going to jail.
