AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after a Romsey father had his ear bitten off outside a Southampton train station.

Ollie Lamacraft begged his attacker to stop as he was punched to the ground outside Southampton Central Station, knocking him unconscious for a few seconds.

The Romsey scaffolder then had his head held to the ground as the attacker repeatedly punched him and smashed his head into the ground before he bit off a chunk of his ear.

Now police are hunting the man, who fled the scene on Western Esplanade just after midnight on August 25.

"I begged him to stop hurting me," said the former Mountbatten School pupil.

"I was pleading with him saying 'I'm a father, I have a little girl'."

The assault comes just two weeks after Ollie had metal plates removed from his jaw following serious injuries after a car crash.

The accident happened in March, where he suffered several broken bones in his legs, sever injuries to his jaw and was left in a coma.

The twenty-four-year-old had been on his first night out since his accident and decided to make his way home at around 11:30pm after his leg began to ache.

The attack occurred after Ollie had been on the phone to his partner, Becky Draper, as he walked from Switch nightclub on Above Bar Street, to Southampton Central Station.

Becky described listening to Ollie and another man have a conversation before the phone call ended but said "nothing seemed to be off."

Ollie explained that he did not recall there being any verbal disputes and described the conversation with the man as "happy and alright".

Just minutes after ending the call, he was knocked unconscious by the unknown attacker.

After the assault, the Romsey man called his girlfriend pleading for help.

Miss Draper said: "It was so awful to hear him like that.

"It was the most horrible thing to listen to as I couldn't be there with him to help him."

Ollie added: “I didn’t want my daughter to see me like that.

"I tried to clean myself up as much as I could but she still noticed.

"When she sees me, she holds onto her own ear.”

The father-of-one added that, since he was knocked unconscious, he cannot remember what the man looked like.

A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary said: "We received a report of an assault which happened on Civic Centre Road, Southampton, at around midnight.

"A 24-year-old man was punched and part of his right ear was bitten off by another man.

"Investigations are ongoing."

Anyone with information is asked to call 101, quoting reference 44180323026.