While attending his ‘local’, our client and his sister were set upon by five crowd controllers who violently attacked and removed them from the premises. Despite being the apparent victims, our client and his sister were later charged with failing to leave a licensed premises and assault occasioning bodily harm. The prosecution alleged that our client had been acting in a disorderly manner when he untied a rope from a moored boat, and in the course of being “removed,” bit one of the crowd controllers.
Our aim at trial was to demonstrate that crowd controllers were thirsty to start a fight and had our client in their sights. Witnesses testified that during the altercation with crowd controllers, they threatened to throw our client in the water, they pinned him on the ground and pulled his arms behind his back causing serious injury, they placed their knees against his throat preventing air flow, they threw him against a limestone wall and finally, once outside the premises, they tackled him to the ground and held him until Police arrived. As a result of the beating, our client required surgery to reattach a torn muscle in his shoulder.
After a four day trial, the Magistrate accepted our ultimate submission that the use of force by crowd controllers was unlawful, excessive and unreasonable. Our client was acquitted on all charges and a full costs award made in our client’s favour.
