A man who bit another fellow twice over a bottle of cider was compared to the infamous Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez in the District Court this week (July 2 ).
“I hope your client accepts the odium with which those who bite people are held,” said Judge Seamus Hughes to Mr Mark Cooney, solicitor for James McCann (22 ), of Carraig Óir estate in Moate.
“You see Luis Suarez and the worldwide odium in which he is held. He’s off the pitch now for four months, and I can put him [McCann] off the pitch for 12 months,” the judge warned.
Earlier, Inspector Aidan Minnock had outlined how McCann went into a house on the Dublin Road in Moate in the early hours of February 17, 2013, and took a bottle of cider.
When the injured party challenged him about this saying it was his bottle, McCann threw it at him, before wrestling him to the ground, and biting him once under the eye, and once on the back of the neck.
“That was some bite to the back of the neck, Mr Cooney,” Judge Hughes noted as he held up a photograph of it.
“He can’t really explain events. He has certain issues, which he is dealing with on a daily basis,” said Mr Cooney before adding his client had €1,000 with him in court as an offer of compensation.
“He is extremely remorseful,” he said.
Judge Hughes wanted to test this contention and asked McCann if he wished to reiterate his apology to his victim who was in court.
“I’m very sorry for what I done. Everybody deserves a second chance,” he said across the court.
After this offer was accepted, and the judge heard McCann had no previous convictions, he remanded him on continuing bail until September 24 for a probation report, indicating if it was positive McCann was likely to receive a suspended sentence on that date.
