A BICESTER man whose ear was bitten off in a fight has been locked up for contempt of court after refusing to give evidence.

Ricky Harries’s refusal to take an oath and provide evidence led to him being detained for a day while his alleged attacker was cleared.

Harries initially told police Kelly ‘Dave’ Stanley stabbed him three times in his back, knocked some of his teeth out and bit the top of his left ear off during a brawl in Bicester on January 31.

But when Mr Stanley’s trial began at Oxford Crown Court on Wednesday, Harries failed to turn up.

Having been arrested and brought to court on Thursday, he refused to swear an oath and answered “no comment” to most questions.

The 40-year-old, of Winterbourne Close, was found in contempt of court by Recorder Richard Hamlin and sent to the cells on Thursday. He was released later that day.

Mr Stanley admitted taking a chunk out of Harries’s ear but said he did so in self defence after he was attacked with a knife.

Both men admitted taking heroin and drinking during the day of the incident.

Recorder Hamlin let the trial conclude but directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict because Harries had refused to take an oath.

Mr Stanley, 39, from Buckinghamshire, was cleared of unlawful wounding.