A police officer told a court how she saw a man accused of violent disorder helping one of her colleagues to his feet.

Wayne Howell was one of a group of stag night revellers from Crawley allegedly involved in an incident outside the Honeyclub on Brighton seafront.

WPC Julie Leslie said she saw colleague PC David Nicholson on the ground with a man bending over him.

She told a jury at Hove Crown Court she was concerned PC Nicholson was being attacked at first.

She said: "He had his back to me. There was a member of the public leaning over him.

"He said he was all right as this man was helping him."

Surveillance footage showed the man, identified as Howell, helping PC Nicholson to his feet.

He is then seen putting his arm around the PC's waist, supporting him.

PC Leslie said she and other officers used their batons on some of the men in the group and two men were bitten by a police dog at the scene.

She said she believed another colleague, PC Darren Eagan, had been "brave" when he hit Crawley doorman Ian Jackson, who is 6ft 8in, on the head with his baton.

Howell, 26, and Jackson, 37, of Roffey Close, Horley; Robert Cohen, 25, of Climping Road, Ifield, Crawley and Simon Grimmer, 26, of Abinger Drive, Redhill, deny violent disorder on March 1, 2001.

The trial continues.