A woman who bit a police officer "down to the bone" has been released from custody after 11 months in jail.
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Ballarat County Court judge Frank Gucciardo said accused woman Sigin Koang's actions had "significant reverberations" across the officer's life.
"Not only having to wait for an HIV test at a time were she may have been pregnant, she was required to undergo [multiple] blood tests and abstain from intimacy with her husband [which] caused separation," he said.
"It was extremely emotionally damaging."
Koang, 21, appeared drug affected at the Creswick Post Office on February 22 last year when she began speaking loudly and incoherently at an elderly woman in the store.
The on-duty police officer, who was also in the post office at the time, saw the elderly woman to be "frightened and uncomfortable" and activated her body worn camera.
Koang was told to leave but continued to harass the elderly woman and resist the officer until she was eventually removed from the store.
The officer told the accused she was to leave the premises and was not allowed to return for 24 hours as she was disturbing the peace.
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Koang pushed past the officer back into the store.
"[The officer] attempted to restrain the accused ... when the accused placed her mouth around [the officer's] left forearm and bit her, clamping down on a large area of skin with her teeth biting down into the bone," court documents read.
Koang bit down harder when the officer yelled in pain, and eventually let go after the officer used her phone to strike the accused on the head.
The bite caused bruising, scratches and bloody marks.
Koang then took the officer's personal bank card from the floor and began to chew it.
She was charged with recklessly causing injury and resisting a police officer.
Noting Koang's youth and personal circumstances, including borderline intellectual functioning and a diagnosis of complex PTSD, Judge Gucciardo said her sentence - 343 days time already served in custody - was "proportionate and appropriate".
The Judge also impressed upon the accused woman to engage in support services upon release so she did not "disappear off into the ether".
"You do need some help in my view," he said.
"There will be a number of agencies ... it's important you engage with them and not just disappear.
"They're trying to help you, they're trying to help you find accommodation.
"If you don't engage with them you're basically going to be out there trying to manage your life with no assistance whatsoever and that might be harder than you think."
Had Koang not pleaded guilty she would have been sentenced to 16 months' jail.
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