Alexander Rodney Buesnel (22) ‘used his teeth as a weapon’ while he wrestled with the victim on the floor of the smoking area during the assault in the early hours of 14 December.
The Royal Court heard that the attack stemmed from an earlier incident on the dancefloor of the nightclub in St Ouen’s Bay which resulted in Buesnel, his girlfriend and others standing in the smoking area.
Soon after they had arrived there, the victim’s girlfriend intervened in an altercation between her boyfriend’s friend and Buesnel, and the defendant pushed her away.
After witnessing his girlfriend being pushed, the victim grabbed the defendant and put him into a headlock before the pair fell and began wrestling on the ground. Buesnel then bit his victim’s face.
After being examined by a police forensic medical examiner, it was found that the man had sustained two lacerations – each 1.5cm in length – which were consistent with being bitten.
Crown Advocate Julian Gollop, prosecuting, said it was the court’s policy to impose custodial sentences in cases involving biting unless there were exceptional circumstances. He then moved for a sentence of 18 months in prison.
But Advocate David Steenson, defending, told the court that his client had acted in self-defence, after multiple blows were ‘rained down’ on him from about three unidentified individuals. ‘What happened does not lie solely at the door of Mr Buesnel. The complainant grabbed Mr Buesnel from behind and put him in a headlock which resulted in him falling to the ground,’ he said.
‘In an already charged atmosphere it must have been frightening for Mr Buesnel as, while he was on the ground, he was set upon by a number of people and his face was kicked and stamped on and his eye was gouged.’
Advocate Steenson then said his client was entitled to use self-defence but admitted that biting him was ‘the entirely wrong thing to do’.
‘It presents a more explicable but still inexcusable reason for biting him,’ he added.
Delivering the sentence of the court, the Bailiff, Timothy Le Cocq, said there were no exceptional circumstances that would enable the court to divert from its policy of imposing prison sentences for offences involving biting.
‘You are not of previous good character and you have a record, albeit not an extensive one. The social-inquiry report puts you at moderate risk of reoffending and notes that your offending is on an upwards trajectory in terms of its seriousness,’ he said.
‘We have read your letter of remorse but also read the letter provided by the victim and this was clearly an unpleasant assault and we understand the effect that this had on him.’
As well as being jailed, Buesnel, who admitted grave and criminal assault, was
ordered to pay his victim £1,500 in compensation.
Jurats Rozanne Thomas and Pamela Pitman were sitting.
