Paddy Doherty gets suspended sentence

Celebrity Big Brother winner Paddy Doherty has received a suspended jail term for his part in a grudge fight in public with another traveller.

Doherty, 52, 'fronted up' to Johnny Joyce, 21, when he was challenged to a brawl amid an ongoing feud.

Manchester Crown Court heard the former bare-knuckle boxer had brought disapproval from elements of the travelling community when he complained to police in August 2010 that Joyce had attacked him in an earlier incident.

Joyce was eventually acquitted of assaulting Doherty, but the latter's appearance in court as a prosecution witness caused 'bad blood' between the two families.

Doherty was jogging in Ancoats, Manchester, last June when Joyce came across him.

A fight ensued near a retail outlet car park which Doherty got the worse of and culminated with both falling on the floor. Joyce then sank his teeth into Doherty's left ear and bit off the top part of it. Insults were spat at Doherty by Joyce's brother, Douglas, who filmed the tussle on his mobile phone.

The footage played in court showed the brawl spilling from the car park outside a PC World store and into the busy main road with cars swerving around the pair.

Doherty, formerly of Duchy Road caravan park in Salford, pleaded guilty to affray last month.

Doherty was due to give evidence as a victim before the prosecution decided to charge all three men.

His sentencing was scheduled on Friday January 6 to keep the feuding factions apart. The Joyce brothers will be sentenced on January 13.