Woman bit off homeless man's ear and assaulted police officer - The Rugby Observer

Woman bit off homeless man's ear and assaulted police officer

Rugby Editorial 16th Feb, 2021   0

A WOMAN bit off part of a homeless Rugby man’s ear when she joined in an attack launched by her then-partner and his twin brother in a town centre churchyard – and later slapped a police officer when she was being arrested.

But after spending more than three months in custody following her arrest on a warrant issued when she failed to turn up for an earlier hearing, Rebecca Green has escaped being jailed.

Green, 39, now of Claremont Road, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to charges of malicious wounding and common assault on a police officer.

She was sentenced to two months in prison suspended for 18 months, with a rehabilitation activity, an electronically-monitored 8pm-6am curfew for four months, and was ordered to take part in an alcohol treatment programme.




Green also admitted failing to attend a hearing at the court in February 2019, for which she was jailed for two months – which she has already served, having been remanded in custody since her arrest in October.

Prosecutor Richard Hutchins said that nearly three years ago two co-defendants, twins Christopher and Scott Griffiths, were given six-month suspended sentences after pleading guilty to assault.


The incident dated back to April 2017 when the three of them and their victim were in Holy Trinity Churchyard, off Church Street.

The park was often frequented by homeless people, and there was a suggestion that at the time all of them were ‘members of the homeless community or thereabout.’

There was a conversation between them and their eventual victim, a homeless alcoholic, and there was a scuffle in which punches were thrown by Christopher Griffiths.

They separated, and the victim left the park and crossed Church Street from where he began shouting abuse at them.

The Griffiths twins ran across the road to confront him, and he picked up a piece of wood to defend himself, but it was taken from him by the brothers who then began to assault him.

As he was being punched and kicked by them he covered his face and head with his arms.

But at that stage Green, who at the time was in a relationship with one of the brothers, came over and ‘stooped down and deliberately bit off a section of his left ear.’

They made off before the police arrived on the scene, and officers took their victim – who has been left with a lasting deformity to his ear – to hospital where he remained for four days.

The three of them were found at an address in Rugby, and as they were being arrested Green became verbally abusive and slapped one of the officers to his face, said Mr Hutchins.

He added that Green had previous convictions for offences including violence, but nothing since the attack and had not been to custody before being remanded following her arrest on a warrant.

Sentencing Green after reading a report on her, Judge Anthony Potter told her: “It was a thoroughly disgraceful episode of which you should be, and are, thoroughly ashamed.”

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