A THUG with a shocking history of violence is back behind bars after two nightclub attacks just days apart in the North-East and London.

Sam Brownless broke a man's jaw in an incident in Hartlepool and has pleaded guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

A fortnight later, a man suffered an identical injury after being punched, and Brownless is facing charges at Woolwich Crown Court.

His lawyer, Andrew Teate, said the second allegation "is likely to be resolved quickly", and Brownless is expected to plead guilty to it.

The 26-year-old was returned to custody following the attack in London - after having been released on licence from a previous prison sentence for violence.

In 2015, he was jailed for three years for fracturing the eye socket of a police officer who had been called to a domestic incident.

During the attack, he also threatened to bite off the injured officer's face, and had to be repeatedly sprayed with CS gas before he could be arrested.

His barrister at the time told a judge that Brownless had now vowed to give up drink, and said: “He knows that the police officer was doing his job.

“He has missed his son’s first birthday and he knows that he will miss more than one.”

A year earlier, he was jailed for 14 months - a sentence criticised by domestic campaigners - for a string of attacks on six women, including his sister, who he stamped on.

He punched four victims at a town centre bus stop after getting into a row with one of them; hit a woman who refused to kiss him at a party; and pummelled his sister when she tried to stop him picking up his baby when he returned home drunk.

His barrister said: “When sober he’s straight forward and rational.

“His family speak well of him when he is not in drink."

As a teenager in 2011, he was given a community order with unpaid work and compensation after assaulting a pub landlord, who needed hospital treatment for a cut head.

At the time, his solicitor said he rarely drank because he could not control himself, and that it was a "rare occasion" that he had had alcohol.

He said: "He hadn't drank for a long time before this incident and he says he won't for a long time to come."

Burly six-footer Brownless, of Rockpool Close, Hartlepool, was remanded in custody by Judge Stephen Ashurst until the London case reaches court.

It is likely that he will return to Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced after that for both of the nightclub offences last August.