AN amateur rugby player smashed up a pub after the landlord refused to serve him.

Joseph Fitzpatrick threw glasses and bar stools and attacked the DJ at the Silent Woman pub in Slaithwaite.

Barmaids fled and shut themselves in the cellar during the “possessed” 27-year-old’s rampage.

The landlord was so traumatised by the incident that he shut the pub, which featured in TV drama Where The Heart Is.

Kirklees magistrates yesterday decided that the case was so serious Fitzpatrick will be sentenced by a crown court judge.

Fitzpatrick, a rugby prop who has played for Slaithwaite Saracens, pleaded guilty to affray.

Prosecutor Bill Astin said the incident happened at the Nabbs Lane premises just after 10pm on December 2.

Fitzpatrick, of Bridley Drive in Slaithwaite, entered the pub with two other men.

The group were drunk and became verbally abusive.

As a result of their behaviour landlord David Heggie refused to serve them and told them to leave.

However Fitzpatrick waved his arms around and ranted: “You’ve got me on CCTV, come and get me.”

He then began picking up bar stools and throwing them at the bar.

Fitzpatrick also threw a table and tried to pull one of the beer pumps from the bar.

His behaviour sent customers fleeing from the pub and forced several staff members into hiding.

Barmaid Maureen Barcley described beer spraying everywhere after the beer pumps were hit.

Mr Astin said: “She said she went to the cellar, turned off the pumps and called police. She said: “I was in real fear of my own safety, I ran through the bar and hid in the cellar with the other barmaids.

“I looked through a gap in the door and saw glasses being thrown around.

“I came out to see that the bar had been trashed. There was broken glass all around the bar.”

Mr Heggie told in a statement how he had feared for his life and fled to the upstairs living quarters, bolting the door behind him.

He said that he burst into tears when he saw the state of the bar, which he said: “Looked like a riot had occurred.”

Mr Heggie, who suffers from asthma, later had to be treated in hospital for his “sky high” blood pressure.

He said: “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

Mr Astin said that Fitzpatrick turned on DJ Nicholas Clay as he tried to intervene.

He said: “He was punched to his face and says that at one point he felt his (Fitzpatrick’s) fingers move towards his eye.

“He managed to escape by pulling his shirt, which the defendant had hold of.”

Magistrates were told that a member of the public came to Mr Clay’s aid by hitting Fitzpatrick over the head with a pool cue.

Fitzpatrick, described by a drinker as “crazy” and “possessed”, was then seen leaving the pub and elbowing the window from outside.

Jonathan Slawinksi, mitigating, said that his client had no recollection of the incident.

He added that Fitzpatrick suffered injury himself, needing stitches in his head where he was struck with the pool cue.

Magistrates described the assault as “very serious” and told him that he will be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on February 19.

He was banned from entering the pub as part of his bail conditions.