Judge dimisses man’s penis-biting appeal

A MAN who bit another man’s penis in an eye-watering­ scrap over a box trailer told an appeal “no man is putting his mouth near another man’s penis unless his life is in danger”.

Convicted penis biter Daniel Hatton at Gosford District Court where his appeal fell short. Picture: Mark Scott

A MAN who bit another man’s pecker in an eye-watering­ scrap over a box trailer told an appeal “no man is putting his mouth near another man’s penis unless his life is in danger”.

Daniel Arthur Hatton faced Gosford District Court on Friday to appeal his conviction for assault occasioning actual bodily harm over the unsavoury incident on September 22 last year in which he bit Peter Peterson’s penis so hard he tore a patch of denim out of his shorts.

Representing himself, the 53-year-old, of Wyoming, argued Mr Peterson was the aggressor who instigated the fight by throwing the first punch and that he only tried to bite him on the upper thigh in self-defence because the younger, stronger man was raining punches down on his head.

Peter Peterson's shorts ...

And the patch of denim ripped out.

“I didn’t bite him on the penis I bit him on the leg,” he told the court. “It was self-defence, I bit him on the leg because he was doing these ones (punches) on my head.”

Hatton told the court Mr Peterson had the denim shorts for a week before he gave them to police as evidence and “tampered with them” by ripping them back to the zipper to make it look like he bit him higher up near the crotch. “This is a disgrace, it’s an absolute slur,” he said.

Mr Peterson sought treatment after the fight, which started over the ownership of a box trailer, at Wyoming Medical Centre before he was sent to Gosford Hospital.

The court heard he sustained a “de-gloving injury” to his penis including a 5cm laceration to the underside of his shaft, which surgeons had to trim back and pull the skin across to stitch back together­.

“Where are the teeth marks on his penis?” Hatton asked of the injury.

Hatton arrives at Gosford District Court to appeal his conviction. Picture: Mark Scott

He said Mr Peterson’s story “changes every minute” between what he told police at the time and what he later said giving evidence in court.

“One minute he’s pushing my head off and the next he’s on top of me and can’t get his penis out of my mouth,” he said.

The Crown prosecutor, however, argued the local court magistrate who first heard the case found Hatton to be an unreliable witness who “exaggerated” his evidence while the victim and two other witnesses provided a more concise, corroborating account of what happened.

Citing Hatton’s recorded police interview the prosecutor said his “eye tooth caught the jeans (and) it also caught the penis underneath and ripped the skin”.

Despite Hatton’s impassioned, yet at times cringe-worthy appeal, Judge Michael Bozic found there were two indisputable facts; that there was a physical altercation­ between the pair and Mr Peterson suffered a nasty wound to his manhood­.

Judge Bozic said ultimately it came down to who instigated­ the fight and the “largely unexceptional” evidence indicated beyond doubt that was Hatton.

“While the bite was intentional the injury to Mr Peterson’s penis was not,” he said.

The judge dismissed the appeal and upheld Hatton’s conviction, which included a $900 fine and an 18-month good behaviour bond.

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