Six years for biting off gang leader's ear

A MAN who bit off part of a gang leader's ear during an attack on a bus in Edinburgh has been jailed for six years.

Peter Simpson, 46, was accused of trying to get his revenge on James Tant, who had been involved in an attempt to murder him in a shooting two months before.

A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected Simpson's claim that he was acting in self-defence and protecting his family when he grappled with 22-year-old Tant.

Tant, who has been described as the ringleader of a gang terrorising the Royston area of Edinburgh, is currently serving an 11-year sentence for the murder bid on Simpson, of Park Crescent, Easthouses, Dalkeith.

A week-long trial heard how the two men met by chance on a bus. Mr Tant and girlfriend Nicola Meikle, 18, were unaware Simpson, his daughter and her mother were upstairs.

The two men clashed when the bus arrived at Simpson's stop in Boswall Parkway, just a few months after Simpson was shot in the back as he returned to his then-home in Granton.

Ms Meikle, describing the struggle, told how she saw Simpson bite her boyfriend's face - then spit out part of his ear.

Tant also suffered two stab wounds to his chest, which Simpson claimed had been inflicted by Tant's own knife as Simpson tried to disarm him.

A jury, with a majority verdict, found Simpson guilty of assault to danger of life.