Kerry Dixon guilty of Dunstable 'fatso' jibe assault

Kerry Dixon said he believed a fellow pub drinker was going to glass him in the face

Ex-England footballer Kerry Dixon has been found guilty of punching and kicking a man in a pub who is said to have called him "fatso".

Dixon, 53, had denied assaulting the man in Dunstable in May last year.

But a jury at Luton Crown Court found him guilty and the judge warned him he could face a prison term when he is sentenced.

Dixon, a former Chelsea player, was granted bail and will be sentenced on 19 June.

Judge Barbara Mensah told Dixon: "I have taken the view that this is a serious assault, for which I will be considering a custodial sentence."

The attack happened at The Nags Head in Dunstable, Bedfordshire

She granted bail, but made it a condition that he not go into the Nags Head pub in Dunstable where he had attacked 38-year-old father-of-two Ben Scoble.

The assault, captured on the pub's CCTV system, was played to the jury and showed Dixon delivering a flurry of punches, knocking the builder off the stool and down onto the floor of the pub where he continued the attack.

Dixon had pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting Mr Scoble occasioning him actual bodily harm.

Kerry Dixon's clubs included Chelsea and Southampton

During the trial, Dixon had claimed he was being hassled by Mr Scoble, who sat on a stool by the bar where the ex-striker had been sitting with his girlfriend through the evening.

In court Dixon claimed he feared he was about to be attacked by Mr Scoble and struck out in a pre-emptive strike, which he said was in self defence.

During the trial, Dixon told the jury that at the height of his career in the mid-1980s he had earned £400 a week.

Following the jury's verdict of guilty, the court was told Dixon had a previous conviction for driving with excess alcohol in 2000 and had been cautioned for common assault in June 2002.