A FATHER who bit off part of another man’s finger during a children’s nativity play has been warned he is facing jail.

Lee Wilkinson was told a prison sentence was "almost inevitable" after admitting carrying out the sickening attack at a school in December last year.

The 40-year-old offshore worker assaulted Michael Dent at Harton Primary School, South Shields, South Tyneside, following a feud between the two men.

Wilkinson, of Fulwell Avenue, South Shields, pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court today (Tuesday, December 18) to a charge of unlawful wounding and a separate public order offence in relation to a run-in last Christmas Eve.

He will be sentenced on January 25 and was granted bail.

Judge Simon Hickey said: "Custody is almost inevitable".

Mr Dent did not attend court for today’s brief hearing.

Wilkinson was originally charged with more serious offences but Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said the pleas to these lesser counts were acceptable.

"There is somewhat a complex background to the case," he said.

"It is accepted that Mr Dent has too been cautioned in respect of assaults on the defendant Mr Wilkinson.

"Obviously, matters came to a head at the nativity play a year ago".

Further details of the fight last December 6 were not revealed in court.

After the attack last year, Mr Dent told reporters he had an on-going feud with Wilkinson over a woman.

Wilkinson had been in a relationship with Mr Dent’s ex-wife, and trouble boiled over at the nativity play when both turned up to see the children’s performance.

It was not thought that any children witnessed the blood-shed, as the fight happened while they were preparing for the nativity play elsewhere in the school.

Mr Dent said he lost the tip of the little finger on his left hand.