A LANDLORD and pub customers looked on in terror as rivals beat each other with pool cues at a Rossendale pub, a court heard.

Judge Heather Lloyd has condemned an outbreak of violence which erupted at the Boar’s Head in Rawtenstall more than a year ago.

Trouble began following a stand-off between regular George Clayton and his wife Lorraine, and Luke Kay, Burnley Crown Court heard.

It ended in a pile of broken pool cues, smashed chairs and glasses and a damaged pool table, the court was told.

One drinker who tried to act as peacemaker, Adam Farrer, was hit over the head with a pool cue by 27-year-old Kay.

Prosecutor Emma Whaites said the violence seemed to mainly involved members of the Clayton and Hackett families.

Mr Clayton’s 25-year-old son Daniel was in the middle of the fracas. And police later arrested Simon Hackett nearby, carrying a knuckleduster.

Passing sentence Judge Heather Lloyd said: “The landlord of this pub was so frightened that he could not be specific about who did what.

“But whoever witnessed this incident must have been terrified.”

In another incident Kay and Amjad Hussain, 26, threatened crown court witness David Ashworth, who had given a statement to police regarding an attack on his friend Ian Parkinson, which almost saw him lose an eye.

Hussain told Mr Ashworth he could be kidnapped, unless he withdrew his statement, and Kay said he would be taken to Crown Point and killed. Kay also claimed someone may torch the home of either Mr Ashworth or his mother.

Kay, also known as Pohrebinyk, of Cutler Lane, Stacksteads, and said to be a scaffolder, admitted assault, public disorder and witness intimidation. He was jailed for 58 weeks.

Hussain, of Greenfield Street, Haslingden, was jailed for 35 weeks after admitting intimidation. Clayton, of Booth Crescent, Stacksteads, was given 80 hours community service for public disorder.Hackett, 22, also of Cutler Lane, for possession of an offensive weapon, was given an 18-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, with a two-month curfew.

Kay and Hussain must pay £500 court costs each and Clayton and Hackett £250 apiece.