Mourner who chomped man's nose during drunken wake gets 6 months in jail

A Nova Scotia man convicted of biting off part of a fellow mourner's nose during a drunken brawl at a wake was sentenced to six months in jail this week.

Randall Edwin MacLean was convicted of aggravated assault last October.

MacLean was drunk when he arrived at the 2014 wake for his old friend Howard Miller at a house in downtown Pictou, N.S. — but he wasn't the only one.

Judge Del Atwood said almost everyone present was inebriated and a disagreement turned into a brawl.

MacLean is also facing 12 months of probation, a victim surcharge of $200, a DNA collection order and a 10-year firearm prohibition.

Biting for balance?

MacLean's lawyer, Joel Sellers, said during the sentencing hearing in Pictou provincial court Tuesday that his client regrets what happened, but maintains he did not intentionally bite Paul Gaudet's nose.

"Apart from acrobats … nobody keeps his balance with his teeth," Atwood wrote in his decision. "People will use their arms, hands, legs or otherwise contort themselves when they need to maintain balance. People do not bite into other people to maintain posture." 

The deep bite exposed cartilage, an emergency room doctor testified, and left a "partial amputation to the tip of the nose."

Doctors were able to save and re-attach Gaudet's nose tip. 

•    
      '    Nobody keeps his balance with his teeth,' says judge in convicting Randall Edwin MacLean