A man has told a court of the terror and pain he suffered when a long-standing friend bit off his ear.

Satish Kumar was left covered in blood after Gurmukh Goraya twice sank his teeth into his right ear, a court heard. The bitten-off flesh was never found.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how Mr Kumar was house-sitting at his brother Onkar's home in Maritime Gate, Gravesend, on February 19 last year.

He and Goraya, known as Gus, decided to watch football on television together and have a few drinks. They were later joined by Goraya's friend Balraj Sohal.

Mr Kumar said Goraya, 32, and 19-year-old Sohal became "boisterous" when after midnight he told them it was time for them to leave.

Sohal, he claimed, struck him over the head with a whisky bottle and after he was bundled to the floor Goraya bit into his ear.

"I just couldn't believe what was happening," he said. "Everything was just squirting out of me.

"Because my elbows were in the way, he couldn't get a good grip on my ear with his teeth. He finally got what he wanted - he took a piece of my ear off."

Asked by prosecutor Danny Robinson how painful it was, he replied: "Very. I was in a state of shock. I was shouting: 'Get off me.'

"he finally got what he wanted - he took a piece of my ear off... – satish kumar

"I could feel some sharpness around the ear area. I was struggling. I lost a piece of my ear. I don't know where it went. I am not aware of anybody finding it on the floor.

"My Goraya was doing the biting. Mr Sohal was restraining me, holding me down so that I couldn't move my head."

Afterwards, he told them to go. "There was blood on my face. I believe Mr Sohal gave me a towel. They cleared up and left me there.

"I just blanked out and came round at about 6am or 7am. It was just a blur. I needed to get some attention. There was blood on the wall."

Mr Kumar called his brother in Birmingham and then phoned the police.

He went to Darent Valley Hospital and was referred to a plastic surgeon at the Queen Victoria Hospital, in East Grinstead.

"They helped to reconstruct my ear," he added.

The prosecutor said Goraya and Sohal were each responsible for the actions of the other.

"They caused him really serious injury - he has got part of his ear missing," he said.

Goraya admitted biting Mr Kumar's ear, but claimed it was in self-defence.
But Mr Robinson said: "Isn't there something else he could have done other than biting his ear off to get him off him?"

Goraya, of Vauxhall Crescent, Northfleet, and Sohal, of Coutts Avenue, Shorne, deny wounding with intent and an alternative charge of unlawful wounding.

The trial continues.