A MAN who bit his girlfriend on the chin during a violent bust up is facing jail.

Sandy Hannan launched the savage attack on his partner following a drinking session at her home in Dunbar.

Hannan, 29, grabbed the woman by the throat without “any warning” before savagely biting into her face.

Shocked neighbours heard her frantic screams for help on January 11 last year and called police.

The attack was so ferocious that paramedics later found Hannan’s finger marks still imprinted on the woman's neck.

Hannan, of Woodbush Place, Dunbar, pleaded guilty to attacking the woman and to breaching a court order to stay away from her when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Fiscal depute Fiona Nairn told the court that the couple had been in a relationship for about seven months and had been drinking together in the house at 6pm.

Ms Nairn said they began rowing and with “no warning he became violent to her and bit her on the chin”.

The woman fled upstairs to a bedroom where she ended up lying on a bed with Hannan standing over her.

Ms Nairn added: “While lying on the bed the accused stood over her with his hand on her neck. The complainer was unable to breath or speak.

“The complainer managed to get up and away from the accused. During this a neighbour heard the accused shouting aggressively and heard the complainer screaming as if she was in pain.”

Police rushed to the home where officers found the woman “stressed and crying and appeared to have a bite mark on her chin”.

Hannan was discovered sitting in the living room nursing a cut hand after he had punched a window during the argument.

Paramedics treated the woman and she was seen to have “grazing and bruising to her chin consistent with a bite mark” along with bruising to her neck area.

Ms Nairn added: “The bruising on her neck spread down to her collar bone and there were imprints of his fingers around her neck.”

The fiscal also said that Hannan had breached a court order banning him from approaching the woman when she turned up at his flat and stayed the night.

The fiscal said the woman was “found hiding in a cupboard” by police officers who had arrived at Hannan’s home during “a welfare check” on her.

Solicitor Angela Craig said she would reserve her mitigation to the sentencing diet.

Sheriff Thomas Welsh QC deferred sentence to March 15 for the preparation of background reports.

Hannan admitted assaulting the woman by biting her to the face, seizing her by the neck, compressing her neck and restricting her breathing at an address in Dunbar on January 11 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a court order on January 15 last year.