Saved by the Bell star Dustin Diamond jailed for four months over stabbing

Screech actor said trial was 'the single most terrifying experience of my life'

Dustin Diamond, with his fiancee Amanda Schutz and her attorney walk out of the coutroom in May (Getty Images )

Saved by the Bell star Dustin Diamond has been sentenced to four months in jail after being convicted over a stabbing on Christmas day.

The 38-year-old, who played Screech in the popular nineties teen comedy, was cleared of reckless endangerment, but convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct over a bar fight in Port Washington, Milwaukee, on Christmas Day by a Wisconsin jury last month.

Diamond had told the jury he took out a pocketknife during the altercation to make members of the public leave him and his girlfriend Amanda Schutz alone after she was punched in the face. He said he accidentally stabbed a man during the incident.

"I sincerely apologise to everyone involved," Diamond told the court on Thursday. "This was the single most terrifying experience of my life ... This is all I've been able to think about for the last six months."

Judge Paul Malloy, who also sentenced him to 15 months' probation, said the punishment “had to send a message to the community that we're just not going to live like this”.

Diamond left the courtroom without commenting. His sentence will begin on Sunday.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press