A MAN arrested after a nightclub brawl in which a man's ear was allegedly bitten off has been jailed.

Lyndon McRae was jailed for six months for his part in the brawl, although his bother, John, was cleared.

John McRae, 33, was arrested after closed-circuit television cameras captured an argument between him and Carl Wilson outside Ocean nightclub in South Shields.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the fight started when Mr Wilson got into an argument with John McRae, of Birchington Avenue, South Shields.

After Mr Wilson lunged at John McRae his head was pinned to the ground where part of his ear was allegedly ripped off during the incident in June last year.

During the trial, however, Mr Wilson claimed his ear had been "nibbled off" by a dog a week earlier.

The jury at Newcastle Crown Court returned a unanimous not guilty verdict.

The judge then sentenced Lyndon McRae, 31, after he pleaded guilty to affray during the same incident.

He said: "You were raining punches on him (Mr Wilson), this was a frenzied attack. Avoiding prison is impossible."

Lyndon McRae, of Henry Nelson Street, South Shields, who was jailed in 1996 for four years for conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm, was sentenced to six months behind bars.