\nGavin Doig, prosecuting, described how Clark staggered to a nearby petrol station, half blinded by the spray, and called for the police and ambulance.
\nHe was treated by paramedics and taken to Newcastle General Hospital for treatment.
\nIn a statement read to the judge, Mr Clark said he did not understand what had caused Tweedy to attack him.
\n‘I would like to say this attack was completely unprovoked,’ he said. ‘The people were strangers. I did nothing to deserve this.’ The court heard that Tweedy, who describes himself of the ‘black sheep’ of his family, had been carrying the pepper spray to protect himself after he was attacked in the city. At an earlier hearing, Tweedy – one of the Girls Aloud singer’s four siblings – pleaded guilty to common assault and possession of a prohibited weapon, the pepper spray. His barrister Paul Caulfield said he was ‘very well known’ in Newcastle, and suffered as a result of having a famous sister.
\n‘He attracts an inordinate amount of attention, although he has not done anything of note apart from his offending,’ Mr Caulfield said. ‘Not only does he attract attention – when it is reported, it causes an inordinate amount of humiliation for his family, and in particular one member of his family. He feels he has let them down again.’
\nHe was given a jail sentence of 36 weeks, suspended for two years, by the Recorder of Newcastle, Judge David Hodson, after a ‘positive’ pre-sentence report.
\nHe will also have to pay Mr Clark \u00a3250 compensation and carry out 100 hours’ unpaid work.
\nJudge Hodson said Tweedy’s record – he has been convicted on 30 occasions for 82 separate offences since 1993 – was ‘pretty atrocious’ but said he would spare him a jail term because he believed he would finally be able to put his offending behind him.
\nCheryl Cole’s spokesperson, Sundraj Sreenivasan, said she had ‘no comment to make’ on her brother’s sentence. Tweedy was sent to a young offenders’ institution for six years in 1996 for stabbing two students in a pub.
\nIn 2005 he was given a four-year jail term for mugging a teenager. Last year Tweedy was paid by a tabloid newspaper for an interview about his drug and alcohol problems.
\nHis sister was said to be furious the paper had handed him \u00a350,000 rather than paying for him to go into rehab.
\n‘He could die if he carries on the way he is, but it torments her that even with all her money there’s nothing she can do,’ a friend told Now magazine at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"