A FORMER professional boxing champion has been jailed after biting a man’s ear, leaving his victim permanently scarred.

Gary McArthur, 36, was led away to begin a two year prison sentence after admitting chomping on a man’s ear in a Clydebank pub.

Nicknamed “The Clydebank Blitz”, McArthur pleaded guilty at Dumbarton Sheriff Court just minutes before he was due to go on trial in front of a jury.

He admitted assaulting the man at the Cleddans Bar, Kilbowie Road, on September 30, 2018.

Prosecutor Kevin Doherty told the court how McArthur, of Onslow Road, Drumry, struggled violently with the man and bit him on the ear to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement. At the time McArthur was on two bail orders from Dumbarton Sheriff Court, orders imposed on him on May 18, 2018 and November 13, 2017.

In 2006 at the start of his boxing career, when he was tipped to go right to the top, he claimed he wanted to be more famous in Clydebank than “Wet Wet Wet".

But his career began to spiral downwardly when he turned to a life of crime and violence, culminating in last week’s prison sentence.

In October 2009 McArthur was found guilty of smashing up the sports car of a Scottish Premier League footballer.

McArthur damaged the Aberdeen defender Zander Diamond’s £42,000 BMW X6 after he discovered the player was dating his former girlfriend.

He was convicted of attacking the car outside her house, and causing £8,000 of damage. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to Mr Diamond.

Despite his criminal record, in 2013 McArthur’s application for a taxi licence was granted by West Dunbartonshire Council’s licensing committee. His record also included defrauding a Bankie taxi driver by failing to pay his fare. McArthur was fined £50 in June 2002 when he failed to pay a taxi fare in Clydebank.

Dumbarton Sheriff Court also heard last week how the former British Masters boxing champion, McArthur, was also convicted of assault to severe injury after he smashed a bottle over the head of a steward in a Clydebank nightclub on July 20, 2003.

McArthur turned professional in January 2006 winning 15 of his first 16 fights and fought for the Scottish super lightweight title in January 2012, losing on points to Stuart Green at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow. He went on to win the British Masters title.

Last week Sheriff Maxwell Hendry jailed McArthur for two years, backdating the sentence to October 9, 2018.

McArthur pleaded not guilty to three other offences, his pleas being accepted by the Crown.

It had been claimed he assaulted the same man at a house in Lennox View on May 17, 2018. It was said he bit him on the ear to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement. He also denied maliciously punching and kicking a door and behaving in a threatening manner and making threats of violence.