No jail for man who bit teenage girl in cocaine-fuelled attack
A man sank his teeth into a teenager's face during a "ferocious" cocaine-fuelled attack in her home.
Joseph Thomas Williams bit the girl and pushed over her mother after calling at their Dudley home at 5am on December 21 last year.
Mr Edward Soulsby, prosecuting, told the hearing that the defendant was known to the family and was upset with them.
He told Wolverhampton Crown Court that on the morning in question the family heard "a heavy knock at the door" and both victims went downstairs to see who it was.
He said when the older victim opened the door he shoved her backwards and said "I will kill you".
Mr Soulsby said: "Williams then lunged at the younger victim and bit her around the left eye. She describes that she heard a scrunch as it happened. Her mother was trying to pull him off, but he was not letting go.
"He leaned over and grabbed her phone and said 'you're trying to be clever', before trying to bite the girl again."
Mr Soulsby said Williams then picked up cans of paint which the family were using to decorate the property and threw the contents on the walls, floor and furniture.
He said the police were called and when they arrived the attacker was found asleep in an upstairs bedroom.
When he was arrested the 20-year-old tested positive for cocaine.
'Disgraceful'
Photographs of his teeth marks on the girl's cheek, cuts to her lip, forehead and eye, and brown paint splashed on the floor were shown at the sentencing hearing.
Williams previously pleaded guilty to an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against the girl, who has not been named for legal reasons; an offence of common assault against her mother; and an offence of criminal damage relating to the paint.
In mitigation Mr Oliver Woolhouse, for Williams said his client had been in custody since the incident and asked the court to suspend the sentence.
Mr Woolhouse said: "He has had time to reflect. His conduct was disgraceful."
Williams had previous convictions, including possession of class B drugs, for which he received a 12-month community order which he breached by committing this latest offence.
The judge Mr Recorder Richard Atkins QC said it was "ferocious attack" on the teen and revoked the order.
He sentenced the defendant, of Monument Lane, Dudley, to 14 months youth detention suspended for two years, 20 rehabilitation activity days to address his drug misuse and 180 hours unpaid work in the community.
Williams was also made subject to a restraining order and must not contact the victims in any way indefinitely.
