A KARAOKE singer who went to his girlfriend’s aid after a late-night bust-up in Burnley ended up hitting a doorman, a court heard.

Wayne Lawrence Birtwell, 30, insisted he only intervened when, while on the microphone at the Bees Knees last December, he saw his partner being escorted from the premises, the town’s magistrates were told.

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Andrew Robinson, prosecuting, said that doorman Nathan O’Hare had been involved in separating two females who had been fighting at the Hammerton Street bar.

Once outside the premises, trouble flared up again, with Birtwell eventually tending to his partner. But as he walked to the ambulance with his girlfriend he struck the doorman to the right side of his face. The blow also led to the employee dropping his mobile phone and causing damage totalling £70.

Trevor Grice, defending, said his client’s girlfriend had been having a panic attack and Birtwell had been telling the doorman to keep away from him.

He accepted he had hit out but the doorman had also aimed a blow at him and missed, Mr Grice added.

Birtwell, of Eastham Street, Burnley, admitted assaulting Mr O’Hare and was fined £100 with £100 costs and £70 compensation.