A knife-carrying man launched an attack in a nightclub after asking his victim to show him his tattoos.

Graham Hughes, of Worsley Street, Accrington, ‘got in the face’ of victim Joseph Duffy at the Hotshots club in Burnley hours after being given ‘adverse news’ about IVF treatment.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Hughes then started asking Mr Duffy if he had any tattoos before both men took off their tops to show off each others artwork.

Hughes was then ejected by door staff after he punched Mr Duffy to the arm. He later hit him to the face outside the club.

The court heard how Hughes, 37, had possession of a knife, which wasn’t used during the incident, and he was later stopped by police armed with tasers.

Hughes pleaded guilty to having a bladed article in a public place and two counts of common assault and was jailed for 16 months.

The court heard how he was previously jailed for six-and-a-half years in 2011 for robbery and affray and released in July 2014.

He has now been recalled from his licence to prison to serve the rest of the sentence.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said the incident happened at around 2am on February 5 this year.

He told the court that Hughes ‘kept looking over’ at Mr Duffy from the other end of the bar and then approached him in an ‘intimidating’ manner.

Mr Parker said Hughes was ‘grumbling words towards him and squaring up to him’ before he was ejected from the club.

The court heard how there was ‘further remonstration’ outside between the two men before one of the doormen tried to separate them.

Hughes then said ‘you wouldn’t stand a chance against me, no matter what happens you’d get pierced’ and hit Mr Duffy to the side of his face.

Mr Parker said other members of the public had gathered at the scene and told the doormen that they believed Hughes had a knife. Hughes was then heard to say to Mr Duffy ‘I’m going to put this in his neck’.

When police arrived Hughes fled the scene and threw the four-inch knife in a nearby doorway.

Mr Parker said Hughes later told police he was ‘extremely drunk’ and ‘on the scale of sobriety to paralytic he was at the paralytic end’.

He also told police he couldn’t remember the altercated.

Defence barrister Patrick Williamson said father-of-two Hughes had made ‘significant strides’ since his release from prison and had made a ‘devastating decision’.

He told the court: “During the previous 15 months him and his partner had been undergoing IVF treatment.

“The day before the incident he had received particularly adverse news. As a result of that news he determined to go out for a drink and to get drunk.

“That was a devastating decision as far as his continued rehabilitation is concerned as one thing led to another.

“The defendant began a rather pointless conversation about the tattoos each man had and thereafter in the street there was a significant exchange of verbals.

“He found the knife earlier in the evening and put it in his pocket for fear it would be used by other people. It’s ironic he then found himself in this situation.

“Although he was in possession of the knife throughout the incident at no point did he actually draw it and brandish it.

“His antecedent history does him little credit. Potentially he will remain in custody for some considerable time until perhaps October 2017.”