Emmerdale actor Mark Jordon has been found not guilty of unlawfully wounding a pensioner who he bit following a row in a beer garden.

Jordon – best known for playing Daz Spencer in the ITV soap – made headlines last year when he was involved in an altercation outside the Farrars Arms in Oldham.

On Tuesday, a jury at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court found him not guilty of affray, unlawful wounding and assault by beating.

He had previously told the court that he had bitten Andrew Potts, but was acting in self-defence, when the pensioner attacked him in July 2018.

“It was not planned, regretful and in the moment. It was pure instinct,” he said.

Jordon also denied pushing Potts’ partner Rosalind O’Neill to the floor during the incident, claiming that CCTV footage from the beer garden showed him trying to grab Mr Potts’s phone, rather than trying to be violent towards her.

Prior to the brawl, Jordon had been celebrating his engagement to his fiancée and Emmerdale co-star Laura Norton but tensions flared after Potts made some “vile comments” about Jordon’s 18-year-old daughter.

CCTV footage showed Jordon having to be held back from Potts, who threw some punches at him, after which they left the pub, but were confronted outside by Potts, which is when the altercation took place.

Speaking outside court, as reported by BBC News, Jordan told reporters he was “grateful to the jury for proving my innocence”, adding he was relieved the “awful ordeal” had come to an end.

Norton was there to support Jordon in court, as were several other cast members including Nick Miles, Sammy Winward and Emmerdale’s longest-serving star Chris Chittell.