Man who fled to Oz after biting off ear is jailed

A Cobh man had his left ear bitten off during an assault at Christmas four years ago by a young man who then fled to Australia where he was recently arrested and extradited back to Ireland.

Darren Swart, aged 25, of 2 Hillcrest Drive, Cobh, Co Cork, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to John Blake, aged 48, in the town on December 26, 2010.

Swart was yesterday sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to four years in prison and had the last year of that jail term taken into suspended.