Anger as violent attack on licensee goes unpunished

Police are being urged to re-open a case after a thug who headbutted a licensee walked away without being charged.

Andrew Goodall, licensee of the Ferrands Arms, in Bingley, West Yorkshire, received a bust lip in the attack when he intervened to stop an argument between the man and two women last month.

Police were called, but despite taking statements from Andrew and two doorstaff no charges were brought against the suspect.

Andrew, who has been licensee at the Timothy Taylor pub for two years, said: "It was just very depressing to know that people can get away with this sort of thing even when there are statements from reliable witnesses.

"It means you have to be more cautious and take extra steps to protect yourself such as employing more doorstaff."

His case has now been taken up by both the brewery and National Pubwatch, which recently launched the Court Not Caution campaign in a bid to get offences against licensees taken more seriously by police.

Steve Baker, National Pubwatch chairman, said: "This is a worrying story and tends to support the need for an urgent review as to how the police and Crown Prosecution Service views assaults on licensees.

"We believe that any assault on a designated premises supervisor or their staff should be seen as an aggravating factor and there should be a presumption that the offender appears before a court."

And Mark Craddock, Timothy Taylor, operations manager, added that the brewery had pursued the matter with police.

"There seems to be a lot of responsibility going on the publican themselves these days but their rights seem to be detrimentally affected at the same time," he said.

"We take responsible drinking very seriously and we think we should get the back-up when it comes to the protection of our licensees."

A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police told The Publican​ there was "insufficient evidence" for a prosecution, but added the incident was being reviewed.

You can support the campaign by adding your name to the Court Not Caution petition​ on the 10 Downing Street website.