Gillingham teacher jailed for vicious ear-biting attack
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A man about to start work as a teacher has been jailed for his
part in a vicious attack in which part of a man's ear was bitten
off.
Daniel Taite, 28 and pictured right, chewed off Stephen
Alderman's lobe, with his earring attached, leaving him bleeding
and in agony. He was jailed for four years.
Taite's brother Thomas Staff, 22 and pictured below right, who
was about to start a teaching career, was sentenced to 15 months in
prison.
A judge told them: "Stephen Alderman was very seriously injured.
There was an intent to do him real and serious harm until he was
rendered unconscious, lying across a wall as if he were dead. You
could have killed him. That you didn't was a matter of chance. He
was effectively left for dead."
Taite, of Chelmsford, Essex, was convicted of causing grievous
bodily harm with intent and assault causing actual bodily harm.
Staff, of Duncan Road, Gillingham, was convicted of assault
causing actual bodily harm. He was cleared of grievous bodily harm.
They denied all the charges.
Maidstone Crown Court heard the two men had been drinking
heavily when they went to the house in Canadian Avenue, Gillingham,
in the early hours of August 8 last year.
As Mr Alderman went to the door wearing just his boxer shorts,
it was forced open. Taite and Staff tried to get past him.
He was punched several times and knocked unconscious. His wife
Ann called her son Michael, 26, who went to help his father but was
also attacked.
Mrs Alderman tried to pull Taite and Staff away, only to be thrown
against a wall.
The brothers eventually left, making threats that the family
should not go to the police.
When arrested, Taite said they had gone to the house to speak to
Michael Alderman's brother Robert about the way he had treated
their sister. Richard Hutchings, for Taite, said his client acted
out of misguided loyalty to his sister.
Richard Witcombe, for Staff, said it was a personal disaster for
his client. He and his brother had intended to go to the house to
remonstrate with the victims.
"But for unusual factors this would not have occurred," he said.
"He is about to embark on a career as a teacher. If there is
immediate custody that job will in all probability evaporate."
Judge Joy said he had read their "extraordinarily impressive
character references" but "such violence simply cannot be
tolerated".
Tuesday, September 07 2010
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