A MAN with a string of convictions for violence yesterday failed to get a cut in his jail term for biting off part of a man's ear.

In the past, Dean Chalmers had threatened two potential witnesses with a sawn-off shotgun, attacked a man with a machete and also set his dog on him.

Chalmers, 33, of Axbridge Gardens, Newcastle, had also committed other assaults, including punching a 71-year-old woman and biting another victim and had been found in possession of a commando knife and a cosh.

In June this year at Newcastle Crown Court, he was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to the unlawful wounding of a man after biting his ear.

Chalmers was ordered to serve an extra 347 days, part of a sentence from which he had been released early on licence in February 2001.

Yesterday, London's Criminal Appeal Court refused to cut his four year term, rejecting claims it was "manifestly excessive".

Mr Justice Curtis, sitting with Lord Justice Laws and John Griffith Williams, said the sentence was "amply merited" both on the facts of the case and when it was compared with terms given in similar matters.

"The aggravating feature is his previous convictions for violence," he said.

On February 2 this year, Chalmers bit off part of the ear of his victim in an assault in a DSS hostel, in Newcastle, following an argument.

The severed ear was sewn back on by a plastic surgeon.

Mr Justice Curtis rejected claims the sentence was too severe having taken into account his guilty plea, the absence of a weapon and the fact Chalmers abstained from crime for a considerable time after his release from jail.