Wayne Rooney: England and Manchester United captain, the nation’s all-time leading goal-scorer and… wrestling entertainment superstar? Maybe not quite, but for a few seconds last night Roonamania ran wild at the Manchester Arena.

A ‘violent thug’ who punched his heavily pregnant teen partner in the stomach, causing her to lose her baby has been sentenced to four years and eight months in a young offender’s institute.

William Lynch, 41, who was hosting the bash, had lunged at sibling Andrew in a ‘childish’ rage while demanding guests leave his home.

A British holidaymaker who punched and cracked an aeroplane window at 35,000ft before telling horrified passengers, ‘I’m sorry for upsetting everybody, I’m not a terrorist’, walked free from a Manchester crown court today.

A 30-year-old man has been left fighting for his life after being punched in a ‘targeted attack’ in Rusholme.

Two Manchester shopworkers were threatened they would be stabbed by a gang of masked thugs as they robbed a Co-op store in Sale.

A retired Walkden teacher who was battered senseless for daring to tell a young Mercedes driver to slow down condemned the culture of ‘big egos driving flash cars’ as he relived his ordeal today.

A 71-year-old man has been left with a broken jaw after being punched and left unconscious by a ‘cowardly’ thug in Walkden.

A 49-year-old man is fighting for his life in hospital after being punched following a night out in Manchester city centre.

A man has been jailed for five years after killing popular Manchester clubber ‘Salford John’ Millett with a single punch to the face.

A mum of five was killed by her fiance with a ‘single devastating punch’ in an argument over whether to take a bus or a taxi home after a night out in Manchester, a court was told.