Evening Press Reporter

Those who bite other people must expect stiff prison sentences, a York judge warned as he jailed a 23-year-old man for five years.

Aaron Hanford bit part of one man's ear off and bit the ears of two other people on separate occasions, York Crown Court heard.

They were the latest in a "terrifying" record of violence the North Yorkshire man began when he was 16.

Hanford, of Jarrow Drive, Harrogate at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to two offences of wounding committed on August 1 and one of causing actual bodily harm to an American serviceman on October 1.

Dan Edwards, prosecuting, said Hanford had been on bail and probation at the time of the last offence which occurred when the US soldier intervened because of the way Hanford appeared to be treating his girlfriend.

"You have a terrifying record for violence," Judge Jonathan Crabtree told Hanford, who has previous convictions for actual bodily harm, assaulting police and a public order offence.

"In this country, on the whole, we do not bite other people and those who do it and get caught doing it get punished very severely," Judge Crabtree told Hanford.

He jailed Hanford for two years for the wounding that left one man permanently without part of an ear, 18 months for the other wounding and 18 months for the actual bodily harm offence. All sentences were consecutive. For Hanford, John Sandiford said he had not gone out looking for trouble in August or October, the fighting had not been one-sided and he had been drinking on both occasions.

However, he accepted his responsibility for his actions and had expressed his remorse.

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