A MAN accused of attacking another man and biting his cheek in a pub fight has been found not guilty of grave and criminal assault.
Jurors at the Royal Court also cleared 47-year-old Simon Livingstone of the lesser charge of common assault.
During a three-day trial this week, the prosecution argued that Mr Livingstone launched an unprovoked attack on the other man outside the Earl Granville pub in Charles Street on the evening of 14 July – and that he had bitten his victim’s cheek.
But Mr Livingstone said the other man had punched him first, after he had accidentally bumped into the other man’s wife on the way out of the pub.
He said he had reacted in self-defence – and strenuously denied biting the other man.
The jury of seven men and five women reached their not guilty verdicts on Wednesday afternoon.
Commissioner Sir Michael Birt was presiding.
