A thug who downed 20 pints and a number of Jagerbomb shots at a wedding before biting part of a taxi driver's ear off was yesterday jailed.
Dane Hodkinson laughed after sinking his teeth into the heavily-bleeding cabbie who had merely asked the 26-year-old if he had money to pay the fare, which he did not.
The passenger launched into an 'animal-like' attack, Liverpool Crown Court was told, not only biting his ear off, but also chomping down on the victim's elbow and fingers.
Hodkinson stamped and kicked the cabbie on the ground and thew his car keys back at him during the vicious assault in St Helens, Merseyside.
Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, told him: "Using your teeth again is your weapon of choice - I find that very chilling and very troubling."
The cabbie has now given up his job and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, along with depression.
Hodkinson was classed a dangerous offender and was jailed for nine years with a four year extended licence afterwards.
The brute, from Leigh, Grtr Manchester, who admitted wounding with intent, was picked up at 5 am on July 13 outside a McDonalds restaurant.
When arrested, out-of-control Hodkinson deliberately smashed his head on the inside of a police van and tried to fabricate a story officers had attacked him, but the incident was caught on CCTV.
Robert Haygarth said his client, with a record for attacking a man with a piece of concrete who he also bit, was 'ashamed and wished to apologise.'