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".