TWO farmers caught up in the foot-and-mouth crisis were spared a prison sentence yesterday after admitting beating a man in a drunken attack.

It was the first time brothers Ian and Kenneth Clement had been out socialising since their farm had been implicated in the crisis, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The brothers, of West Craig Lea Farm, Roddymoor, near Crook, County Durham, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray. Ian Clement, 33, also admitted criminal damage.

Aisha Wadoodi, prosecuting, said the pair went out in Willington on November 11 and had been drinking since 5pm.

At about 12.40am, she said, they were seen by Raymond Pollitt in the High Street and Ian Clement ripped the wing mirror from a car.

The pair then aimed kung-fu type kicks at Mr Pollitt, who was bitten by Kenneth Clement, 30. He also pushed his fingers into Mr Politt's eye, she added.

James Mitchell, for the brothers, said they were ashamed of what they had done and said it has been a stressful time for them.

He said their father ran a pig swill business which was "the one that was alleged to have been the cause of conveying contaminated pig swill to the farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, where the foot-and-mouth outbreak began".

He said the family business had collapsed overnight, while the family had come under intense media scrutiny.

Judge Les Spittle jailed Kenneth Clement for 18 months, suspending the sentence for two years. Ian Clement was sentenced to 21 months, suspended for two years. Both were placed on supervision orders for two years.

* Earlier this month, the men's father, Alan Clement, 58, was fined £580, with £1,129 costs, after Bishop Auckland magistrates found him guilty of 14 charges of failing to keep and failing to produce records of pig movements.