A teenage girl needed 50 stitches after a stranger ‘bit her face off’ on the bus. Ella Dowling, 19, was on her way home when fellow passenger, Darren Taylor, 53, started to make inappropriate comments about her and her friends. Taylor then grabbed Ella’s face and repeatedly bit her nose and mouth, with the horrific attack lasting for about five minutes.
Ella and her friends managed to get away from Taylor who was subsequently detained by members of the public until the police arrived. He was arrested for causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Part of Ella’s lip and her left nostril were severely injured, and the right side of her lip was split open.
Ella was initially treated at Cheltenham Hospital before being transferred to Gloucester Hospital for emergency surgery. In March 2024, Taylor pleaded guilty to GBH with intent at Gloucester Crown Court and was sentenced on 18 July. He was jailed for six-years and nine-months, and was handed a lifelong restraining order.
Ella, a social work student at Portsmouth University from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, said: ‘The pain I felt when he sank his teeth into my face is something which will stay with me forever. He was like a dog with a toy – moving his head side to side.’ ‘I put my hands around the back of his head because I knew if I didn’t he would rip my lip and nose off completely.
When I saw my face for the first time after the attack, I didn’t recognise my own reflection, and I couldn’t look in the mir.
