WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Michael Byrne walked free from court after admitting the assault on Kit
16:00, 03 Nov 2025Updated 18:37, 03 Nov 2025
Kit Nolan-Barnes had part of his ear bitten off outside a Liverpool pub(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
A man was left disfigured for life after a stranger bit off part of his ear – but walked free from court. Christopher Nolan-Barnes, known to his friends as Kit, had gone to meet three of his friends at Shenanigans on Tithebarn Street on New Year’s Eve 2023 after finishing his shift as a chef at The Railway pub nearby.
Briefly leaving the tightly-packed pub, he joined his friend outside where a man asked to use his friend’s lighter. As 25-year-old Kit returned inside, leaving his friend outside the pub, he said he heard a fight break out.
He claimed he looked back to see his friend being attacked by the man who had asked to use his lighter just moments before.
Kit told the ECHO: “Someone asked my friend for a lighter and when I went back inside this person attacked my friend.
“I went outside to break the fight up but three people jumped on me and I was kicked and punched.
“Then, in the middle of this, the man who asked for a lighter bit my ear off.”
The stranger Kit refers to is Michael Anthony Byrne, 35, of Farnworth Street, Kensington.
On October 29, Byrne appeared in Liverpool Crown Court where he was handed a 12-month community order, told to pay a £150 fine and £114 victim surcharge as well as to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activities after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Kit still suffers nightmares following the assault(Image: Kit Nolan-Barnes)
He walked free, but Kit, who still works as a chef and lives in the city centre, has been left permanently disfigured and was forced to wait almost two years to see his attacker sentenced.
He said: “He was meant to be sentenced last year but because of the rioters (in the wake of the Southport stabbing in July 2024) being in court, they pushed the date back. How is that fair? And now he is just free.
“I have so many sleepless nights, I’m anxious just talking about it.”
Kit added: “Somebody who takes a part of someone’s face getting 12 months and a £150 fine is not good enough.”
In CCTV seen by the ECHO, a fight breaks out in the street outside the bar between around six or seven people. Kit, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, can be seen running into the middle of the brawl as he separates Byrne from the group.
This is where Byrne wraps his arms around Kit and bites his ear off. Another man then joins the pair and pulls Kit from him before attempting to hit him while Byrne kicks him.
Kit Nolan-Barnes was left permanently disfigured when his ear was partly bitten off(Image: Kit Nolan-Barnes)
In the immediate aftermath, emergency services arrived at the pub and Kit was taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital where he was tested for hepatitis and told he would be permanently disfigured after the attack.
Fighting tears as he spoke to the ECHO, Kit said: “It’s just a constant reminder. You try and do a good thing, I was breaking up a fight, but I end up with half of my ear gone.
“I can’t even speak to my mother about it. She doesn’t know this has happened, I can’t tell her. Can you imagine telling your mother you lost half your ear? It would break her heart.”
Kit’s mum lives in Morecambe, where he was born and raised before moving to Liverpool four years ago for what he called a “fresh start”.
His friend who he had known from his home town got him the job in the city centre but now Kit is living with the worry he will bump into the man that attacked him.
Kit Nolan-Barnes had his ear bitten off in 2023(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Kit said: “I do not like speaking about this. During the nights after the attack I got three hours’ sleep the week after. I still have nightmares.
“I don’t feel like it’s fair. I work down the road from where it happened and this person lives in Liverpool. How am I meant to not see him? I work in the pub literally down the road from where it happened.
“I felt like I had to come to the ECHO because it’s not right. I lost a lot of my ear. I have no confidence. I feel like I can’t go out anymore.”