Joey Barton’s career as a Premier League footballer was placed in doubt today when he was jailed for six months for two “cowardly and extremely violent” assaults committed at the end of a long night’s drinking.

The Newcastle United midfielder had been out drinking with his cousin Nadine Wilson, 27, and his younger brother Andrew, 20, in his native Liverpool on Boxing Day night last year after missing his team’s away match with Wigan through injury.

CCTV footage captured the moment when Barton, who had drunk ten pints and five bottles of lager, ‘snapped’ and began raining blows on his first victim, laying prostrate on the ground, before turning his attention to a 16-year-old youth.

The assaults happened at a time when Barton, 25, known as the bad boy of football for his volatility on and off the field, was on bail for an alleged assault on Ousmane Dabo, 31, then a colleague in the Manchester City squad, during a training session. He faces a trial for that offence next month.

Judge Henry Globe, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, told Barton, who had already pleaded guilty to affray and assault that he was the worst behaved of each of the three defendants, and had ignored attempts to restrain him to behave in a “most violent and aggressive manner”.

He told him: “You were on bail and if ever there was a time when you should have been on your best behaviour, this was it. You have a high profile image as a footballer but you drank to excess and put yourself in a vulnerable position late at night.

“It is a sad fact that these incidents of violence, frequently fuelled by alcohol, are a worrying feature for law-abiding members of society who want to walk the streets safely at night”.

Barton, who was brought up by his father on the tough St John’s Estate in Huyton, Merseyside, is the older brother of Michael Barton, 20, who is serving life imprisonment for the notorious racist murder of the black schoolboy Anthony Walker three years ago.

The court was told that the trio had sought refuge in a 24-hour McDonald’s restaurant in the city centre at 5am after their marathon drinking session. Inside the burger bar there was an altercation between Barton and Wilson and a group of men.

CCTV footage shows Barton telling them “you have no right to say that. You are a t***. Wait outside and I will be out in a minute,” before being restrained by Wilson. As Wilson tries to calm him down, he assures her: “I am not a fighter - I am a lover”.

When the group of men leave, they are replaced by two teenagers, Jordan Spencer and Connor Murphy, who fall into conversation with Barton, asking him whether he is the famous footballer. Wilson, who has drunk up to three bottles of wine, is said to be loud and aggressive and tells one person who tries to intervene to “f*** off”.

The two 16 year olds follow Barton out of the restaurant in time to witness the ensuing fight.