... ‘You know the play Romeo and Juliet? Well this isn’t it.’

damage could have been caused by this he looked for something to put the other man off.

“He picked up a brick but decided that this was far too serious.

“There was a pan in the garden, he picked this up and hit him.”

The court head that a witness saw the brass-coloured knuckle duster on Dover’s hand.

Dover claimed that he had no intention of hitting Allsop with it and used it as a paperweight after purchasing it while in America.

Robert Dawson, for Dover, said: “Both parties had been drinking and he doesn’t have a very good recollection of what happened.

“There was a dispute over a woman who both had been involved with.

“He used the knuckle duster for ornamental purpose but obviously it is more serious than a pan.”

Judge Scanlon said: “You know the play Romeo and Juliet? Well this isn’t it. It was a Saturday night at 11pm in a public street.

“You both behaved in a disgraceful way in public without concern for anybody else.”

Judge Scanlon added that the offence would stay with Dover for a long time as he would now find it difficult to travel to America.

He told him: “You were out with something which, if needed, you would have used to inflict serious harm.”

Both men were sentenced to a 12-week curfew and ordered to pay £85 costs plus £30 victim surcharge.

The knuckle duster destroyed.