A former helicopter pilot bit the chairman of Newquay’s Royal British Legion club after he was barred from attending a meeting.

Peter Elliott was filmed on CCTV and mobile phones during the incident in which he also sank his teeth into a second Legion member.

The 56-year-old claimed he acted in self-defence but a jury at Truro Crown Court convicted him on two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm after a trial last week.

Elliott, of Newquay, was jailed for six months, suspended for two years, and made subject to a three year restraining order banning him from going to the Newquay branch of the club and some of its members.

Judge Simon Carr told him: "It was an extremely unpleasant assault."

Prosecutor Miss Katie Churcher said Elliott carried out the attacks last August and told the jury: "He admits biting them but says it was in self-defence.

"The defendant was not a member and had been banned so wasn't welcome.

"The prosecution says he wasn't entitled to be there and wanted to cause a confrontation."

Club chairman Jon Goodman tried to get Elliott to leave and stop him gaining access to the meeting upstairs in the club. As Elliott was being blocked from the stairs, he lunged and bit Mr Goodman's hand causing it to bleed.

A second person, Annie Swan, heard raised voices and she was also bitten by Elliott as she tried to help.

Elliott claimed he was unlawfully restrained and attacked as a result of bad blood between him and Mr Goodman.

Elliott made headlines in 2016 when he spent four years barricaded inside a farmhouse which he lost during a bitter divorce battle which ended up with him being arrested after the High Court issued a warrant.

He transformed the £500,000 property set in 70 acres in Appleby, Cumbria, into a fortress and surrounded it with barbed wire, tree branches and fitted CCTV cameras following a bitter £6 million split with ex wife Leonie Butler.