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A mass brawl was sparked in a boozer - because a man had his pony-tail pulled.

More than £1,000 worth of damage was caused as people set about each other with pool cues.

By the end of the huge scrap Charlie Reilly launched glass after glass from a table at the bar of the pub.

And it was all started when someone touched Reilly's precious coiffure, reports the Coventry Telegraph .

The 21-year-old traveller who was at the pub in Wheelwright Lane, Coventry, for a family get-together, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to a charge of affray.

He was jailed for 20 months – consecutive to six months of a suspended sentence he was subject to at the time, which he was also ordered to serve.

Read more:Walthamstow 'riot': Shocking footage shows brawl

Prosecutor Sharon Bahia said that in June a large group of men, women and children from the travelling community went into the pub at around 7.30pm.

There was no problem until shortly after 11pm when Reilly had his ponytail pulled by another customer as he was standing at the bar.

A CCTV recording showed that he exchanged words with the man responsible, and then landed a heavy punch – at which ‘the entire pub erupted,’ said Miss Bahia

As things began to die down after about two-and-a-half minutes, members of the attacking group began to leave.

But Reilly, who kicked a man who was already unconscious on the floor, went over to a table where he picked up glass after glass and hurled them at the pub windows and the bar as staff tried to take cover.

(Image: Getty)

He was traced thanks to his DNA on the still-unbroken glass he had left on the bar when his ponytail was pulled, said Miss Bahia.

The pub was left with the floor littered with broken glass, broken pool cues and overturned furniture.

When Reilly was arrested he claimed he had acted in self-defence, but the CCTV recording showed him throwing the first punch.

Asked by the judge why Reilly had only been charged with affray, Miss Bahia said that three customers who had received hospital treatment had all refused to make complaints.

She added that Reilly had convictions for offences including robbery and assault, and less than two months before the incident in the Hub, he had been given a seven-month suspended sentence for an assault.

Briony Molyneux, defending, who said Reilly was now living with an uncle in Birkenhead, said: “There was antagonistic behaviour on the part of others. Although nothing to excuse his behaviour, there was a degree of provocation when one of the other men pulled his hair.

“Under the surface was a degree of racial tension. He is from a traveller family, and they were not particularly made welcome.”

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Jailing Reilly, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told him: “Someone approached you and pulled your ponytail. That is something they should not have carried out, and it angered you.

“But what happened thereafter was very frightening indeed. You were punching, moving between parts of the fight, and others with you took up weapons.

“Three people went to hospital with cuts to their heads, a man lying at the corner of the bar was kicked by you as he lay unconscious. It was utterly terrifying for others who were there.”