A DRUNKEN row over a mobile phone ended with a man biting his neighbour's ear.

Dean Hill, 27, then attacked a police officer following the incident, Bolton Crown Court was told.

And Hill also repeatedly broke a restraining order not to approach his mother who lives at Mill Hill Caravan Park, the court heard.

Hunter Gray, prosecuting,said on September 8, Thair Rajput was drinking with friends at his flat on Bromwich Street when they were joined by Hill, who lived in the same block.

At one point Mr Rajput noticed his phone was missing and asked Hill about it whereupon he grabbed him by the throat before picking up a kitchen knife, punching him and dragging him out of the block into a communal garden.

Repeatedly using racist language and threatening to kill him, Mr Rajput was punched repeatedly with Hill then biting his victim on the cheek and ear, said Mr Gray.

He also picked up a brick and brought it down on Mr Rajput’s head.

Once arrested and at the police station, Hill grabbed an officer around the throat during a struggle.

Mr Gray said Mr Rajput had a number of seizures, a torn ear lobe, deep abrasions to his cheek and a haemorrhage to his eye which has caused permanent damage to his vision.

The court also heard how in January last year, Hill had visited his mother’s home, asking to have a bath and for £2.

She described him as “arguing with someone who wasn’t there” and she heard from other family members that he had later threatened to burn her caravan down.

The following day, officers were called to the caravan site and arrested Hill, who was in possession of a bag containing a baseball bat and a craft knife.

On October 13, Hill walked into his mother’s caravan, demanding £5, and later told officers he had gone there because he was “sick of having cold baths”.

He returned to the site on November 24, asking for £2, and then came back later that night when he got into a struggle with his father.

Mr Gray added that Hill eight previous convictions for 10 offences, including burglary.

Geoffrey Lowe, defending, said Hill had a long history of mental health problems and alcohol abuse.

“He is hallucinatory and somebody recorded him talking to a pigeon in the street and rather cruelly uploaded it on to the internet,” said Mr Lowe. “But that is indicative of the state he was in when committing these offences.”

Judge Graeme Smith, said: “It is very clear you have significant mental health issues however it is not to such a degree that you need treatment in hospital.

“You have openly said you will resume drinking when you are released from custody so we are left with no option but a custodial sentence.”

Judge Smith handed Hill, who pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault, assaulting an emergency worker, three offences of breaching a restraining order, possession of a bladed article and possession of an offensive weapon, to 40 months in prison.

He also extended the restraining order to the whole of Mill Hill Caravan Park and made it indefinite in length.