A FORMER soldier in the French Foreign Legion badly bit a man's ear after a row outside a nightclub.

Jason McAleese had been in dispute with Nicholas Bevan over a member of a rugby club, Worcester Crown Court heard.

After Mr Bevan made a lewd gesture inside Club Eros, in Hereford, a confrontation blew up and a struggle broke out, said prosecutor Tim Hannam.

McAleese bit him on the chest, then on the left ear exposing the cartilage.

The ear needed a skin graft to repair it. But Judge Andrew Geddes accepted that the defendant was provoked and had tried to avoid violence by walking out of the nightspot.

He gave 31-year-old McAleese, of Hillside Avenue, Redhill, Hereford, two years' probation on condition he attend an anger management course.

The judge also ordered him to pay the victim £100 compensation and pay £300 court costs.

McAleese, who admitted unlawful wounding, was celebrating his birthday at the nightclub on July 27 last year with a group of friends, said Mr Hannam.

When Mr Bevan made the gesture, some of the defendant's group took offence before the fight began.

McAleese was arrested at the scene and told police he felt intimidated by a bigger man who grabbed him around the neck.

Defence counsel Dele Alakija said there had been problems over the rugby club which led to a number of incidents.

In one, drink had been poured over McAleese's girlfriend.

After leaving the Foreign Legion, he began drinking too much and was picked on because of his father's Army background.

Mr Alakija said: "The aggression came from the other party.

"He was abusive and fired up and kept squaring up to the defendant, invading his personal space.

"It was almost a case of self defence."

The court heard that McAleese, who looked after his 67-year-old disabled mother, had two previous convictions for assault.