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Journalist’s arm broken in attack after he tried to photograph police incident

A regional journalist broke his arm when he was attacked after trying to take a photograph of a police incident on New Year’s Eve.

Kent Online’s Sam Lennon, pictured, is recovering after being punched in the back of the head around an hour after being threatened at a pub in Dover.

Sam, 54, had tried to photograph what appeared to be a spat between a reveller and police outside the port’s Duchess pub.

He was later on his way to another pub, The Malvern, when he was struck from behind and fell, causing his arm to break.

Sam Lennon 1

Sam, who was not on duty at the time, believes he was targeted for taking the picture.

He told Kent Online: “I felt the wallop in the back of my head just between my neck and my skull. Down I went.

“I landed on my two hands and right knee which was grazed. I must’ve gone down hard on the left hand, hence the fracture. One of the three men was the one who threatened me and another was a guy who had made a snide comment outside the kebab shop.

“My friend Andrew Azure was staying with me from London for New Year and he asked the man: ‘What did you do that for?’ They walked off to the station followed by a large crowd of men and women.”

Both the reveller Sam had been trying to photograph and the man who threatened him were part of the same group of partygoers.

After the assault, Sam’s attacker carried on walking towards Dover Priory railway station and said: “How do you like that?”

He reported the incident the next day after waking up in “excruciating” pain, and Kent Police are now investigating.

Sam will not be able to drive for six weeks and currently is unable to work.

He added: “I’m sure the attack is to do with me trying to take that picture. If I wasn’t a journalist I wouldn’t be taking the picture and if I’d been standing by watching, they wouldn’t have noticed me.

“The fact they came across me later is why they took the chance to take a pop.”

8 comments

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  • January 4, 2019 at 9:58 am
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    No excuse for that. Dreadful behaviour.
    On a minor point, shouldn’t it be broke AN arm.?
    Hope they catch the thugs.

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  • January 4, 2019 at 11:38 am
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    He didn’t do it, so it should read: “….had his arm broken”.

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  • January 4, 2019 at 1:37 pm
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    I appreciate the desire to ‘maintain standards’ but the grammar has no impact upon my understanding of this article so I don’t care either way and neither do the readers of local newspapers.

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  • January 4, 2019 at 6:04 pm
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    Not good, but was he photographing up close with a mobile phone, if so he was asking for trouble

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  • January 4, 2019 at 11:02 pm
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    Oliver, you are so wrong. It is one reason papers are selling about 10 per cent of what they once sold. Unlike some journalists, many readers (or former readers) are literate and they find the declining standards of grammar and punctuation irritating. These mistakes are being made too often by people professing to call themselves professional journalists. I can recall a time on my paper when you would be loudly reprimanded for grammar mistakes (I made a few). No longer. The subs are on the far side of the moon, if there are any.

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  • January 7, 2019 at 10:46 am
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    Not sure why he was ‘asking for trouble’ Dave? It’s 2019. Ninety-nine per cent of photographs are taken mobile phones these days. He was a professional photographer taking a photo of a news event in a public place. It’s not his fault some lunatic decided to clonk him on the head.

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  • January 7, 2019 at 1:16 pm
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    A reporter taking pictures with a phone or a professional photographer? Either way being assaulted is wrong and not his fault. However, you’re in less danger using a pro camera with a medium telephoto lens in that situation than a phone, but if you’re off duty the best camera in the world is the one you’ve got with you!

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  • January 7, 2019 at 1:57 pm
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    paperboy, like I said, I appreciate the desire to maintain standards but my point is that there are bigger issues facing the industry. There may have been fewer grammatical errors in the days of subs but, ask yourself, how often did they really matter? Some still do, without doubt, but only when they change the meaning and someone’s understanding of the story. You can’t tell me, hand on heart, that any readers would stop buying their local newspaper simply because ‘broke his arm’ is not grammatically correct.

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