Brawl after BNP meeting

Two Carlisle men have been given suspended prison sentences at the city’s crown court after violence flared in a pub following a meeting of the British National Party.

They were among a group of drunken local men caught in a confrontation with members of the BNP from the north east, who met in the city’s Griffin pub on the afternoon of Saturday June 9 this year.

Desmond Young, 36, of Balfour Road, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid community work. Alan Crilley, 27, of Shadygrove Road, who also pleaded guilty to two charges of criminal damage, got a nine month sentence, suspended for two years, with 200 hours of work. Both men had more than 50 previous convictions, including several for violence. A warrant was issued for the arrest of 34-year-old Jason Foster, of Flower Street, who was also scheduled to be sentenced for affray but did not turn up in court.

None of the people from the north-east was arrested.

Prosecuting counsel Paul Murphy told the court there were about 100 people in the pub when the “large fight” broke out, with both sides throwing chairs and glasses in what one witness described as five minutes of “absolute chaos”. At least one woman customer took refuge in a disabled toilet as the drunken men set about each other, he said.

In mitigation defence barrister Greg Hoare said that despite his bad record Crilley was “heading in the right direction”.

He said the trouble involved a group of people from Newcastle who had been using the pub for a BNP meeting.

Barrister Rod Halligan, for Young, said he had managed to stay out of trouble for six years and had only got involved in this fight after someone threw a chair at him.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Peter Hughes QC described them as “hardly the best ambassadors for this city”. He told them: “To be involved in affray right in the heart of the city centre, in broad daylight, in front of anybody passing by or coming out of the railway station, is deeply unattractive behaviour and it is the sort of behaviour residents of this city don’t feel they should tolerate.”

Carlisle News and Star