A gang of six drunken hooligans who went on the rampage at a Bingley bar after a football match were today jailed for a total of more than ten years.
The thugs – one a self-confessed member of the notorious Ointment gang which follows Bradford City – stormed the Foundry Hill Bar in Bingley, following a match between City and Barnsley.
They were seeking revenge against a doorman at the bar who had posted “derogatory” messages on social networking site Facebook, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Terrified customers, including a pregnant woman, fled to the back end of the bar as the men poured in the front door at 8.15pm on July 25 last year.
Tom Leach, 21, Paul Clifford, 51, Kevin Butterick, 46, Gary Partridge, 39, and two 17-year-old youths have now been jailed after admitting violent disorder on July 25 last year.
Prosecutor Patrizia Doherty said they had been among a gang of between 20 and 30 men heading towards the bar, some chanting threats to “kill” the doorman, Samuel MacGregor.
Along with colleagues, he tried to shut the men out but – after smashing windows and a door – they barged through.
Mrs Doherty showed judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC footage taken by the bar’s CCTV of the men running into the bar and smashing chairs. The gang “trashed” the pub, causing £7,000 worth of damage, the court heard.
Judge Durham Hall said: “Inside that public house were perfectly normal, law-abiding, well-behaved members of the public, among them a pregnant lady.
“The distress is unimaginable.”
Clifford, of Littlemoor Crescent, Pudsey, Leeds, admitted to police he was a member of Bradford’s notorious Ointment hooligan firm but said he could remember little of the incident.
Butterick, of Buttershaw Drive, Bradford, also told police he had been too drunk to remember anything.
Partridge, of School Lane, Wibsey, and Leach, of Cooper Lane, Bradford, answered “no comment” in interview.
At yesterday’s hearing, Leach was sentenced to 21 months for his part in the violence, with Clifford and Butterick receiving two-year sentences.
Partridge, who was previously jailed for violent disorder, was jailed for two and a half years.
The two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were given sentences of 12 and 18 months in youth detention centres.
All were given football banning orders for six years.
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, QC, said: “This city is not alone in its experience of what happens when mobs go on the rampage. But this city has been scarred and its judges will not hesitate, in the face of mob violence, to move swiftly and robustly to punish you and deter others.”
Chief Inspector Mick Hanks, of Airedale and North Bradford Police, said: “We welcome the decision of the courts today which sends a clear message that this kind of violent and anti social behaviour will not be tolerated.”
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