A JUDO expert's career was in ruins last night after he was jailed for an attack on two men in a town centre.

Club doorman Martin Wilby, 27, was to represent England next week in the jujitsu world championships in Brazil.

Wilby, who gave himself up to police at the scene, where the men lay injured, said he thought they were part of a gang who attacked his car as he waited at a junction.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Wilby chased after the group with a baseball bat, but as he returned to his car, he was shouted at by two other men.

Adrian Dent, in mitigation, said his client thought they were shouting threats, and he attacked them out of fear for his safety.

The attacks, in Middlesbrough, were caught on a security camera.

Mr Dent said a jail sentence would mean Wilby could never work again as a doorman in the area, would lose his home and also his place in the England team at the Brazilian Jujitsu World Championships in a week.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, told Wilby: "The people of Middlesbrough are fed up to the back teeth that their town centre is being effectively a no-go area in the early hours of the morning for respectable, decent, law-abiding people. It is a sad reflection for a town that has got a lot going for it."

Wilby, of Portland Place, Darlington, was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to two charges of actual bodily harm assault on November 21 last year.