A FORMER TV soap star has confessed to possessing a machete and causing a disturbance in Oldham.

Craig Fitzpatrick, a former regular on BBC's Waterloo Road and who has also appeared on Shameless, confessed to the two offences when he appeared at Manchester Minshull Street Court through a video link from HMP Forest Bank this week.

The court heard the former actor, whose character Lewis Sneddon once tried to burn down the fictional Rochdale school, is currently on the Covid wing of the prison.

Fitzpatrick, of Ashton Road in Oldham, also faced charges of damaging a bannister on stairs and an assault by beating but his not guilty pleas were accepted by prosecutors.

The court also heard witnesses the prosecution may have relied on had declined to come forward.

Judge Mckone deferred sentence on the 33-year-old in order to obtain reports.

She said: "You are going to be sentenced on the 9th of December, I am going to ask for a pre sentence report.

"Please do not take any implication from this, all sentencing options are open."

Fitzpatrick was previously spared jail after he attacked his former partner with a shoe and slapped her in August 2009.