A MAN from Chorleywood was jailed for two years at St Albans Crown Court on Wednesday after sinking his teeth into a man's ear on a dance floor.

Thomas Irwin, 24, attacked Matthew Iveson after they bumped into each other in the crowded Long Island Bar on August 8.

Mr Iveson, a recruitment consultant, told the court he was dancing with friends when Irwin kept pushing himself into them.

At the trial in February he said: 'I requested he watch what he was doing and keep to his space.

'He did not say anything and we moved out of the way.

'A couple of minutes later the same gentleman was pushing into me.

'I turned him around and pushed him back.'

He told the jury his girlfriend, Wendy, stepped in but then Irwin moved towards him and he thought he was going to say something into his ear.

But he said: 'I realised he had his teeth on my ear for a period of five seconds.

'It was hard enough to cause pain. I did not want to move for fear of losing my ear.

'After five seconds I grabbed out and pulled the glasses off his face.'

He said Irwin ran off.

Prosecutor Mr Sean Minihan said Mr Iveson suffered serious tissue damage to his right ear and needed minor plastic surgery to repair cartilage.

Irwin, of South Road, Chorleywood pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. He denied the more serious charge of wounding with intent but was convicted by the jury.

He said he accepted what he had done but did not mean to cause injury.

Sentencing him Judge Colin Colston QC said: 'What cannot be tolerated is that you, in the heat and noise of a crowded dance floor used teeth as a weapon and bit someone in the ear.

'The message has to go out that the price to pay is a heavy one if teeth are used as a weapon on another human being.'