Self-defence claim rejected as woman found guilty of ear biting

Joanna Hanna Gavin, from Helenswood Court, admitted wounding the other woman during an incident at a flat in north Belfast last year, but claimed she was acting in self-defence.

Following a trial which began at Belfast Crown Court on Monday, the jury cleared 41-year-old Gavin of threatening to kill the other woman, but found her guilty of wounding with intent to cause the other woman grievous bodily harm.

During the trial, the court heard the injured party was a mother of eight and the ‘common law’ wife of Gavin’s brother.

The jury also heard accusations from the injured party that Gavin “always hated” her, and blamed her for a gun attack on her partner/Gavin’s brother.

Called to give evidence, the injured party revealed she had to have plastic surgery on her left ear.

She told the jury she was attacked by Gavin as she visited a friend at her flat at New Lodge Place on the morning of May 19 last year.

Saying she was left “black and blue”, the injured party said she heard a voice shouting at her before she was attacked by Gavin.

The injured party said: “She jumped up off the sofa and grabbed me by the hair. She trailed me down by the hair. She is a big woman. She overpowered me. I was only after having a wee baby.”

She said as she lay on the ground, she was punched and grabbed by the throat by Gavin. She said her friend intervened, but Gavin quickly came at her again, this time biting her ear.

At this point she said: “I ran as fast as I could down the stairs and straight out the front door and around the corner.”

Members of the public offered assistance, with one handing her a t-shirt to stem the blood flow, before she was taken to hospital for treatment.

Gavin, who admitted to a charge of wounding which was not accepted by the prosecution, said she acted in self-defence. She claimed the other woman instigated the attack, that she reacted and that she bit her but never meant to cause her serious harm.

An officer who attended the scene told the court that when he spoke to Gavin in the flat at around 9.40am, she was “heavily intoxicated”.

Gavin is due to be sentenced in August.