Man sleeping in tent left scarred after nose bite

Youssef El-Kirate, 33, of Barrington Road, Worthing, caused ‘likely permanent scarring’ when he chomped deep into the cartilage of his victim’s nose at his ex-partner’s property in Raleigh Way, Goring, on July 15 last year.

He appeared for sentencing at Chichester Crown Court on Monday after admitting unlawful wounding on the first day of his trial in February.

In jailing him, recorder Stephen Smyth said: “I’m afraid I can’t suspend the sentence. When somebody bites somebody’s nose in the way that you did, there has to be a deterrent.

“You bit the end of the man’s nose causing a laceration that went through to the cartilage, leaving likely permanent facial scarring and also kicked him while he was on the ground.

“The offence is so serious that I have no alternative.”

The court heard El-Kirate had been called to his ex-partner’s house to remove her boyfriend from the property, as she had ended their relationship.

The victim had been allowed to sleep in a tent in the back garden but had ignored requests for him to leave. He woke at 7pm to find El-Kirate straddling his chest.

In an attack which went ‘beyond the pale’ he was bitten on the nose, kicked and punched, leaving him with blood streaming down his face. Gareth Burrows, prosecuting, said: “A witness says they could see the complainant curled up on the ground in a ball and a man standing over him and kicking him quite hard in the face, swinging his arms as he kicked him. The defendant kicked him hard in the face.”

Rebecca Upton, defending, said her client had turned his life around after drug problems and was now living at his mother’s house with his partner and their two young children.

She said an immediate custodial sentence would create difficulties with childcare, with his mother too frail to look after them and his partner battling her own difficulties.

He was credited for pleading guilty on the first day of his trial, which he was due to stand for the more serious charge of wounding with intent.

Displaying no visible emotion as he was sentenced, he picked up his bags and waved to a woman in the public gallery before being led to the cells.