Joe Gatti jailed after biting off man’s lip in savage New Year’s Eve attack

A man chased his ex-girlfriend’s new partner down the street before plunging his teeth into the man’s face, leaving his horrified victim traumatised and disfigured.

A serial biter who punched his ex’s new partner repeatedly before sinking his teeth into the other man’s face and tearing off his lip has been jailed.

Kingaroy District Court was told Joe Gatti carried out the horrifying attack after chasing down the couple as they walked down a Blackbutt street on New Year’s Eve, 2020.

Crown prosecutor Alysha Ballantyne said the frightened couple tried to run from the 36-year-old but he caught up with them.

Gatti repeatedly punched his victim in the face, leaving him with swelling around his eye and an infraorbital haematoma, a rare condition that can present with protruding eyeballs, double vision, vision loss and pain.

Gatti then got on top of the victim and bit off a large portion of his bottom lip, causing “serious disfigurement”.

The 36-year-old later took to Facebook to mock the assault by writing, “heaps of people thought he must have tried to kiss me” with a laughing face emoji.

Gatti was described as being “angry and yelling” when police arrived on the scene.

Joe Gatti was sentenced to jail for attacking a man and biting off his lip in a vicious public attack in Blackbutt.

Surgeons were able to close the wound, but the “chunk of flesh” bitten off his face was not found by his partner until the next day.

Ms Ballantyne said when police spoke to Gatti the following day he lied and said the victim, who he’d known for a significant period of time, punched him first.

She added the “savage attack” had a lasting impact on the victim, who now struggled with anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, difficulty eating and emotional stress.

Gatti was stated to have a history of violent and anti-social behaviour, including biting a police officer, punching a man unconscious at a Blackbutt hotel, threatening a woman with a steel pole, and drink driving the wrong way down a Brisbane street.

Joe Gatti was sentenced to jail for attacking a man and biting off his lip in a vicious public attack in Blackbutt.

Defence lawyer Doug Wilson said a good deal of his client’s past offending involved alcohol.

Gatti pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.

Judge David Kent sentenced Gatti to three years in jail, with a parole eligibility date set for August 12, 2022.

“Unless you mend your ways you are going to spend longer and longer in jail,” Mr Kent said.

“It might be that you're more than capable of getting the best of some of your opponents in a fight, but in jail there are very dangerous people, including people who have no problem adjusting the odds in their favour by hitting you over the head from behind with a chair or pouring boiling water on you.

“All kinds of things that you can’t defend yourself against and could leave you very injured or dead.”

Originally published as Joe Gatti jailed after biting off man’s lip in savage New Year’s Eve attack