'Parade crash driver bit through my ear, chewed it up and then spat it out

A FORMER Royal Navy reservist has described how the Liverpool parade attacker bit through part of his ear, chewed it up and spat it out more than 30 years ago.

- POL ALLINGHAM

Stuart Lucas told the Daily Mail that he stepped in to stop Paul Doyle from assaulting younger Royal Navy Reserve sailors at a service station, as they travelled to South Wales.

The altercation had broken out after the younger men challenged Doyle, then in the Royal Marines, over his drunken behaviour, the newspaper said.

Doyle was handed a yearlong jail sentence after the attack and it is one of several violent offences that led to him being convicted.

Last Tuesday Doyle, 54, was jailed for 21 years and six months after he pleaded guilty to 31 offences relating to the crash on May 26, when 134 supporters were injured as he drove into them on Water Street in the city centre.

Recounting the 1994 incident at Charnock Richard services, Lancashire, Mr Lucas told the Mail: "It was so painful I let go and then when I did let him go, he bit through it [my ear], chewed it up and spat it out."

Doyle was one of two marines on a bus with 28 sailors travelling to Barry, South Wales, to join HMS Dovey and sail her to Glasgow, according to the newspaper.