Last updated at 16:33, Wednesday, 05 December 2012

A MAN was left scarred after he was bitten on the face during a drunken attack.

ATTACKER: Daniel Robertson Hardie leaves court JON GRANGER REF: 50041913B000

The vicious incident was prompted by an argument Daniel Robertson Hardie had with his own girlfriend’s mum, after she asked him not to smoke in her living room in Swarthmoor, Furness Magistrates’ Court heard.

Prior to the attack Hardie had been living at the property with his girlfriend Lisa Kavanagh and her mother, Donna Kavanagh.

On the day of the attack, August 23, Hardie, 25, had drunk a bottle-and-a-half of the fruit-flavoured drink Taboo, said prosecutor Mr John Appleby.

That evening Lisa Kavanagh returned from work and an argument broke out between her and Hardie because she was unhappy he had got drunk.

Around the same time, Donna Kavanagh’s boyfriend David Bartlett, 57, had come to visit and was sitting on the sofa in the living room.

Appearing as a witness, Mr Bartlett told the court Hardie came into the living room following the argument with a cigarette, but was asked to leave the room to smoke it by Donna Kavanagh.

“Daniel pointed out that he paid his board and he could go where he wanted in the house and it was in an aggressive manner,” said Mr Bartlett.

“I stood up to back Donna up and I probably told him to leave the room. He looked at me with what I would describe as an evil look and pushed his face into mine.”

Hardie pushed Mr Bartlett back onto the sofa and there was a scuffle in which he first tried to bite him on the nose and then sank his teeth into his left cheek.

Mr Bartlett was left with a severely bleeding cheek and bruising to his nose.
The pair were eventually split up when Lisa Kavanagh intervened and shouted at them to get off one another.

Hardie, of Church Street, Barrow, indicated a guilty plea to a charge of causing actual bodily harm on October 4, but Monday’s (3) hearing was held so magistrates could pass judgement on his claim he bit Mr Bartlett in self-defence.

He told the court Mr Bartlett had put his hands around his neck and got on top of him and he had to bite him in order to break free.

However, magistrates found there had been no provocation and Hardie had been the aggressor in the incident. Sentencing was adjourned until December 18.

First published at 10:24, Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk