A WOMAN was left with her earlobe dangling off when her friend bit her face and ear in a drunken attack.

Keith Middleton, 38, has been jailed for 12 months after pleading guilty to causing actual bodily harm to his pal Sharon Baine.

When officers arrived to arrest Middleton, they found him with his pants around his ankles and he had urinated on his friend’s sofa.

He was extremely drunk and claimed he had no recollection of attacking his friend.

Preston Crown Court heard Middleton, of Ship Street, Barrow, had been ‘in a bad way’ after breaking up with his partner and losing his job. On April 18 Miss Baine went to his home and the pair started drinking.

They returned to Miss Baine’s flat at around 10pm, collecting more alcohol on the way.

Middleton fell asleep on the sofa and Miss Baine was watching TV when without warning, he sat bolt upright, grabbed her by the face and told her: “Shut up, or I’ll kill you.” He then sank his teeth into her cheek and bit her earlobe - severing it from her ear.

Joe Allman, prosecuting, said: “She had a full bite mark to her left cheek and a bite to her left earlobe, which had gone through all layers of skin and separated a chunk of her earlobe - which was dangling from her ear.”

Miss Baine texted her daughter to come and help her, but when the young woman arrived with her partner, Middleton spat at the younger woman’s partner. He was also aggressive to police officers on his way to the station.

The court heard the offence was not premeditated and was committed when Middleton was drunk.

Recorder Mukhtar Hussain, sentencing, said: “She clearly was very frightened of what was going on. She didn’t understand why you were behaving in that way.

“This is, in my view, a sustained or repeated assault on your victim. You bit her two times.

“The fact that you bit her using your teeth is regarded as the use of a weapon. You caused a significant injury.”