Police cruiser.
Credit: Metro file photo
A South Boston man who bit off another man’s lip and swallowed it following a bar fight was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail.
Robert O’Connor, 46, who is considered an habitual offender, was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 22 years in jail, according to the Suffolk district attorney’s office. A judge sentenced O’Connor to 20 years in jail for a mayhem charge and a consecutive term of 2 1/2 years for assault and battery on a second victim.
O’Connor was convicted in March for the 2012 fight. Authorities said he entered a South Boston bar and attempted to pick a fight with a man by calling him a racial slur as the two played pool. O’Connor then began pushing a bar employee who had come to stop the fight.
Two bar employees and the victim were able to get O’Connor out of the bar when he again called the man a racial slur. The two then agreed to cross the street to fight. During the fight O’Connor grabbed the man’s head, leaned in and bit and ripped off a large portion of the man’s lip, disfiguring him. Authorities said that evidence showed that O’Connor then swallowed it.
O’Connor was indicted as an habitual offender based on his record, which includes a 2007 conviction for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for an attack on a fellow inmate, another conviction for breaking and entering and larceny and another from 1986 for a gun offense. As an habitual offender, O’Connor was exposed to the mandatory sentence allowed for his recent conviction.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
