A FORMER parish council chairman and two other men have been sentenced to community service for their part in a Christmas party brawl.

Christopher Kimber, of East Street, Fritwell, was found guilty of affray following a brawl at the Oxfordshire Inn Hotel at Heathfield, near Bicester, in December 2005.

The 53-year-old was also found guilty of assaulting hotel manager Owen Deli, Sgt Robert Whitaker and another police officer during the incident.

He was ordered to carry out 300 hours of community service on each of four charges, to run concurrently, at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

Kimber, who was chairman of Fritwell Parish Council at the time of the brawl, was also ordered to pay £900 compensation and £3,500 costs.

The court heard that because of the conviction, Kimber would not be standing for re-election.

His son, Garrick Kimber, 26, also of East Street, was told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for affray and assaulting a police officer.

Paul Cook, 27, of Fortescue Drive, Chesterton, was ordered to do 100 hours of community service for assaulting a police officer with intent to resist arrest. He was told to pay £100 costs.

The three men had all denied the offences but were found guilty by a jury earlier this month.

Judge David Morton Jack said: "It was very fortunate that much more serious injury was not caused.

"A table was overturned, there was broken glass, there was evidence of the kicking of people on the floor. It was horrible violence."