A DOZEN drinkers fought in a Western saloon-style brawl that spilled out of a crowded York pub into the street, magistrates heard.

Edward's Bar, off George Hudson Street, erupted when Ashton Leslie Ogden was evicted after he argued with his ex-girlfriend.

Magistrates heard it took three doormen to expel the struggling 21-year-old.

Jane Chadwick, prosecuting, said witnesses saw Ogden try to punch and bite the doormen as he was evicted.

"The place then erupted into violence," said Mrs Chadwick. There was shouting and screaming and glasses were smashed, she said."

Some of the brawlers took to their heels before police arrived.

Ogden, of Kingsclere, Huntington; Zahid Hameed, 32, of Grosvenor Terrace, Bootham, York, and Mark Dennis Geoffrey Harrison, 20, of Ostman Road, York, all admitted affray and were each ordered to pay £50 costs.

Ogden and Harrison were banned from all licensed premises within a mile of the city centre for a year.

In addition, Harrison was ordered to do 70 hours community service. Ogden was put on probation for six months and ordered to go on an anger management course and forfeit £50 because he breached a bind-over for a similar offence imposed just months before the fight. Hameed was given an absolute discharge and bound over for a year.

Hameed said he had twice held an alcoholic licence and witnesses had seen him attacked by other people.

"I wasn't an instigator, I am just a victim," he said.

Jim Withyman, for Ogden, said: "It looked like a Western bar-type brawl."

He said Ogden had been very drunk and didn't remember trying to punch or bite.

Nicky Goodman, for Harrison, said he had gone to the aid of his friend, Richard Lee, who had later been arrested and fined.

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