BRADFORD men who went to Skipton with friends for a night out ended up in a brawl after being ejected from a town centre nightclub, a court heard.
One of the two men ended up in hospital with a wound to his forehead that needed four staples, heard Skipton Magistrates' Court.
What started as an incident involving one of the men inside Kooky, on Keighley Road, quickly escalated with both men, security staff and with 'multiple' members of the public present, the court was told last Friday.
Grove Rackham, 32, and Ben Holdsworth, 29, both admitted threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour at the club on December 10 last year, while Rackham also admitted being drunk and disorderly at the venue.
Rackham, a tree surgeon, with no previous convictions, was specifically charged with threatening behaviour towards security staff, while Holdsworth, a mechanic, who does have previous convictions, the court heard, was charged with threatening behaviour towards other, unidentified people.
Prosecutor Matthew Rose said that punches were thrown by the pair, security staff and with 'multiple members' of the public present. He said the incident had been on the cusp of being the more serious affray, and said there were 20 minutes of CCTV footage showing clenched fists and punches connecting with people.
The crown had pulled back from it being an affray because Holdsworth, to an extent, had some mitigation in that he had been punched in the face and had ended up in hospital, said Mr Rose, who added no possible complainants had been identified from the CCTV footage.
Mitigating, Keith Blackwell said it was an unfortunate incident that had involved 'quite a lot of rough and tumble'.
"These two young men together with a number of others from Bradford visited Skipton and went to Kooky's. Sadly, they both had had quite an amount to drink," said Mr Blackwell.
Mr Blackwell said the situation escalated after one of the men got into an argument inside the club, and his friend had stepped in to help.
He said."It was an unfortunate affair. Mr Rackham and Mr Holdsworth felt a sense of injustice about what had happened. They felt they had been dealt with too robustly by the security staff. The situation grew and progressed outside. No one had gone out that night with the intention of brawling."
Rackham, of Thorncroft Road, Wibsey, Bradford, and Holdsworth of Silver Birch Avenue, Wyke, are due to be sentenced following reports on August 9.
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