A MAN who smashed a plain clothes police officer's teeth in as he went to arrest a man in the early hours could be facing jail.

Lee Dwayne Alderson, 27, was found guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm, after a three-day trial at Burnley Crown Court.

The defendant, of Moor Street, Nelson, was bailed until December 12 for a pre-sentence report and warned by Recorder David Knifton he could be sent to prison. He had denied the charge and alleged he did not know victim PC Gavin Wesley was a police officer.

The jury had been told the officer suffered fractures to all his upper teeth, bone trauma and "irreversible damage," after he was hit in the mouth by Alderson outside the Good Night Club in Nelson, in March.

PC Wesley, in plain clothes and investigating burglaries, had gone to arrest a man named Eddie Geddes after seeing an assault. He said they had fallen to the floor and he had been getting to his knees when he was struck by "something or somebody." He ended up bleeding from the nose and mouth and in a daze but hung onto Mr Geddes.

The officer, described as a "man of some stature in height and width," told the jury he had heard his colleagues shouting:" Leave him, he's a bobby," during the melee.

The defendant told police that a "fat bloke," had laid into Mr Geddes. He claimed he did not know PC Wesley was "a copper."