Odd News

New Zealand man: I bit victim, but I'm no vampire

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-06 13:48

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand man charged with assault in what local media has billed a vampire attack admitted biting his victim but denied he wanted to drink the man's blood, a newspaper reported Thursday.

"Do I look like a vampire? I'm out during the day time," James Phillip Brooks was quoted as saying in the Dominion Post, as he left court in the capital, Wellington.

Brooks and two other people have been charged with wounding a man with intent to render him unconscious in an alleged late-night attack on February 20, according to court documents. The charge carries a maximum 14-year prison term.

Brooks, 22, admitted to the newspaper that he, his girlfriend and another friend all bit the victim in a revenge attack after the four of them had been at a party in the Mt. Victoria neighborhood of the capital.

"Yeah, I bit a guy ... he hit on my missus," Brooks was quoted as saying. "My girlfriend and my mate were biting him. I was angry with him so I used it as an excuse."

The Dominion Post reported that the victim passed out after the attackers drank some of his blood, and local media have called the incident the "Vampire Attack on Mt. Victoria."

However, police on Thursday declined to give details of the assault because the case is before the courts. The court documents did not mention biting and offered only basic details. The victim's identity has been suppressed by the court.

Brooks said the intention was not to draw the man's blood, or to drink it.

"It wasn't my agenda, I was just angry," he was quoted as saying.

Brooks and his girlfriend, Xenia Gregoriana Borichecsky, 19, were granted police bail when they appeared in the Wellington District Court on Wednesday. The third person charged, James Eric Orr, 19, failed to appear at the hearing as ordered, and police issued a warrant for his arrest.

The trio have entered no pleas and are due back in court next month.