A PUB landlord has denied carrying out a stabbing which left a town centre reveller with serious brain damage - claiming he was 'not a fighter'.

Jonathan Wrigley, 34, told Preston Crown Court jurors that he had even told regulars at his Bacup pub, The Wellington, to forget about taking on rivals from The Queens in nearby St James Square.

Around 20 were seen brawling outside a takeaway, throwing bottles and beer glasses at each other, after a misunderstanding over a girl escalated in the early hours of November 22 last year.

Wrigley, The Wellington's licensee, is accused of using a butterfly knife to stab James Mulcahy in the chest during the violence. He now requires round-the-clock nursing care and is not expected to recover.

Questioned by defence barrister Richard Dawson, Wrigley said: "I am not aggressive, I'm not the fighting sort. It's not who I am."

Wrigley also denied claims by several witnesses that he could have been seen with a silver butterfly knife, alleged to have been used in the stabbing, or regularly had a Swiss army style knife on his belt buckle.

He told the court that he had a craft knife, which he kept in the pub's cellar, to open boxes as part of his trade, which he had never carried into the main bar.

Wrigley also said that one alleged incident of knifeplay, detailed by witness Lee Collier, was said to have happened when his 62-year-old mother and nine-year-old son were stopping at the pub, a claim he branded 'ridiculous'.

Prosecutors allege that Wrigley, in a panic over the stabbing, had made efforts to wipe CCTV footage at The Wellington.

His cousin, Curtis Munro, 21, of Queen's Park Road, Heywood, has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in relation to the same act.

But Wrigley claims that he wanted to erase security camera footage to avoid tough questions from his estranged partner, Lindsay Talbot.

The court heard that Wrigley was regularly being unfaithful to her with pub customers Shannon Young and Natasha Casey.

Miss Talbot had remained in Heywood to look after Wrigley's son, John Ryan, but the landlord admitted she suspected he had been cheating on her, the court heard.

CCTV footage played to the jury, showing Wrigley's Hyundai car leaving the pub, shortly before the stabbing, was just the publican giving an agreed lift home to his friend Ryan Pakes.

Wrigley, of Newchurch Road, Bacup, denies attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. The trial continues.