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Publisher assaults man in row over ‘racist’ newspaper

An independent publisher has been found guilty of assault after headbutting and punching a man he claimed branded his newspaper “racist.”

Danny Lockwood, founder and publisher of The Press in Dewsbury, attacked Liam Ellis outside a pub last April after a discussion about the paper, leaving him needing five stitches under his left eye and with his vision still affected.

He was found guilty of assault by beating at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court by District Judge Baldwin on Friday after a one-day trial and will be sentenced later this month, rival title the Dewsbury Reporter reported.

Lockwood, 55, of Main Street, Elvington, York, is also a columnist for The Press and is publisher of Yorkshire Golfer Magazine and rugby title League Weekly.

The court was told on Friday that Mr Ellis began talking to Lockwood at the Fox and Hounds pub in Hanging Heaton on 20 April last year.

Mr Ellis worked at the pub but was drinking there as a customer when Lockwood came into the taproom at around 10.15pm and the pair struck up a conversation.

Lockwood, who represented himself during the trial, said that Mr Ellis had become loud and threatening during their conversation, branding him and The Press “racist”.

The publisher said he left the pub feeling “upset and shaken” and claimed the assault was in self-defence but Judge Baldwin rejected this account, saying she believed Mr Ellis was going outside to apologise.

Mr Ellis told the court: “I thought the way that things were written could be seen as discriminatory. We discussed [it] for 10 or 15 minutes but it never became overheated or threatening.”

He said Lockwood had then left the pub and he had decided to go and apologise to him, after deciding the pub was not the best place to discuss his views on the newspaper.

Said Mr Ellis: “I offered my hand and I said ‘I’ve come to apologise’. He was stood perhaps five yards away and he came running at me and he hit me.

“He came and headbutted me and I doubled over and he kept punching me in my face and arms.”

The court was told the blow forced Mr Ellis back into the lobby of the pub on the floor and a member of bar staff had stopped the attack by opening the lobby door, so putting a barrier between the two men.

Mr Ellis was taken to Dewsbury and District Hospital with the left side of his face covered in blood and he received five stitches.

Lockwood accused Mr Ellis of “picking a fight” with him but prosecutor Ben Crosland said it was Lockwood who had lost his temper after having his evening cut short.

Judge Baldwin said he was not satisfied that Lockwood was acting in in self-defence or that the force used was proportionate.

The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report and Lockwood will be sentenced on 25 February, with Judge Baldwin saying that a community penalty was the most likely sentence because of his previous good character.

After the trial, Lockwood told HTFP: “There were a number of aspects of the case that I was very disappointed with, not least the outcome.

“I was surprised that the judge seemed ambivalent to contradictions in the witness statements, and discounted police photographs which supported my account that Mr Ellis’s injury was caused not by a head butt, but an accidental clash of heads when he pursued me outside the pub, and which also left me with a deep cut on the crown of my head.

“It feels like it’s open season on journalists, inside and outside court.”

He added he was considering appealing against the verdict.

21 comments

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  • February 4, 2014 at 8:18 am
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    Trying not to laugh and choke on my cornflakes – funny story

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  • February 4, 2014 at 9:29 am
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    Enlighten us furrygreybadger as to why this story is funny.

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  • February 4, 2014 at 9:53 am
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    I think you’ll find it’s ‘butted’, not ‘headbutted’.

    You can’t butt with anything else…..

    But hey, I’m just being pedantic.

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  • February 4, 2014 at 10:23 am
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    it is pretty funny. maybe he should have hired a lawyer.

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  • February 4, 2014 at 10:36 am
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    BECAUSE any publisher who gets involved in an argument in a pub at 10.15 p.m. over something in his organ deemed to be “racist” is more than likely to be involved in a ding dong whether it’s his fault or not.
    As a former court reporter, I always kept quiet about my job when in such places, knowing what people are. It’s common sense.
    As for laughing about it, well, let’s face it there’s not much else to cheer us up in HTFP these days with the JP corporate dinosaurs on the rampage.

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  • February 4, 2014 at 10:48 am
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    Ditto the post from ‘Media Pundit’. I’m struggling to see the joke.

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  • February 4, 2014 at 10:48 am
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    Well, the irony – unintentional or not – at the end of this quote is worthy of soccer pundit Ron Knee: “There were a number of aspects of the case that I was very disappointed with, not least the outcome.”

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  • February 4, 2014 at 11:50 am
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    Well said TRUTH WILL OUT. Sorry Media Pundit, I am still laughing!

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  • February 4, 2014 at 1:47 pm
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    Standards in this industry are plummeting.
    “He was found guilty of assault at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court”
    NO! It should read “He was found guilty, at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court, of assault.”
    The way this is reported it says that the offence was committed at the court.
    This is so basic – one of the first things I was taught at journalism college 35 years ago, yet we see this error repeated in almost every court report.

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  • February 4, 2014 at 3:50 pm
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    Come on JP cost cut victim, don’t disappoint!

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  • February 4, 2014 at 3:56 pm
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    Surely better to place the subordinate clause at the start, then one of the commas can be omitted: “At Kirklees Magistrates’ Court, he was found guilty of assault.”

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  • February 4, 2014 at 4:05 pm
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    Well, we’re always being told to connect with our readers…

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  • February 4, 2014 at 4:30 pm
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    Disagree Veritas. With my wording the emphasis is on him being found guilty.But your version is better than the original.

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  • February 4, 2014 at 6:55 pm
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    There’s no need for a subordinate clause. Just say: Kirklees magistrates found him guilty of assault.

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  • February 5, 2014 at 1:52 pm
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    Come on Bob the bulk sale builder, don’t disappoint!

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  • February 5, 2014 at 2:59 pm
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    Pedants always try to assert that ‘headbutt’ is tautological. However, as anyone familiar with casual violence will know, it refers to a butt TO the head and not a butt WITH the head.

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  • February 5, 2014 at 3:20 pm
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    Really very sorry to read this report. Danny Lockwood is not only a fine man, but a cracking journalist too.

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  • February 5, 2014 at 3:38 pm
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    Incidentally. I thought Ron Knee was a manager.

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  • February 5, 2014 at 6:49 pm
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    A rugger bugger publisher, a “discussion” about racism in a pub at night in a place called Hanging Heaton….sorry, but a smile crosses my lips!

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