Assault on a publican

Hertfordshire Mercury, 8th February 1913

Transcript

Alfred Miles was charged with assaulting Herbert Lewes, landlord of the Diamond Inn, Railway Street, Hertford, on 26 January 1913.  The prosecutor, Herbert Lewes, stated that the defendant went into his house at a quarter to ten o’clock on the Sunday night in question, the worse for drink. He refused to serve him and asked him to leave, whereupon the defendant struck him a blow on the cheek.

The defendant stated ‘ I owe Mr Lewes a little money, and this is how he is getting his own back. I never struck him. There was a scuffle in the bar, he rushed in and got struck. He reckons he is a fighting man.’

George Whitten, a carpenter lodging at the Diamond Inn, gave corroborative evidence as to the assault.

P.S. Palmer stated that he saw the defendant in Railway Street with only his trousers and shirt on. He had been fighting and he was taken home by some of his friends.

The defendant alleged that he got drunk in the Diamond Inn and that the landlord then refused to serve him. There was a ‘scrummage’ in the bar and the landlord came between them and that was how he got hit.

Alfred Miles, the defendant, was fined 15 shillings or in default ten days hard labour.

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