A mum had the top of her thumb bitten off by a vile stranger who then spat it out onto a shop floor.
Christopher Chapman launched the sickening assault after getting involved in a dispute with the victim in the street.
The thumb tip was sent flying into a store before it was retrieved, packed in ice and sent to hospital with the victim, according to Chronicle Live.
The horrified woman says her thumb is now "ugly" and "half the size of what it was", however skin and nail has grown back over the previously exposed bone.
Chapman, of Elswick, Newcastle, admitted he "felt the thumb in his mouth, spat it out and ran away" after the violence erupted in Sunderland, in August 2019.
Prosecutor Jessica Slaughter told Newcastle Crown Court the victim had been walking along Holmeside in the city with her sister and got into a row with Chapman, who was sleeping rough and had just got out of prison.
Miss Slaughter told the court: "She remembers her sister saying to her 'it's your thumb' and picking up a discarded thumb tip.
"She looked at her hand and saw part of her right thumb was missing."
CCTV from a shop shows Chapman enter the store with blood on his face and a woman enter behind him, pick the severed thumb tip up from the floor and leave with it.
The victim was taken to hospital and had surgery as well as follow up treatment.
She said in a statement: "It will affect me greatly for the rest of my life.
"I am shocked a stranger would do this to me."
She added: "My right-hand thumb is half the size of what it was.
"The skin has grown over the bone, which was exposed and the nail has grown back but it is ugly to look at."
Chapman, 33, of Warrington Road, Elswick, Newcastle, who has 96 previous convictions, admitted unlawful wounding on the basis of excessive self defence .
The court heard he claimed he was attacked first, after asking for a cigarette and bit down because he feared his eye was about to be gouged.
Glenn Gatland, defending, said: "He bit down on the thumb, he thought, to try and stop his eye being gouged."
Mr Gatland said Chapman now has a stable home and partner and is sorry for what he did.
Recorder Shakil Najib sentenced Chapman to 13 months behind bars.
The judge told him: "A person is entitled to defend themselves when attacked but self defence cannot be excessive.
"You bit her thumb, severing the tip completely, causing permanent injury."
The judge added: "She received surgery for the injury to her thumb. Her thumb is, she says, half the size of what it was prior to the assault."
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