Statement of Stanley Sturgess

Age: 52 years Occupation: Landlord Address: The Stag and Pheasant, Farnham Way, Birmingham B6 8RT

I am the landlord of the Stag and Pheasant Public House and Restaurant at the address given above. I live with my wife, Frances.

Stanley Sturgess will say:

On Monday 25 December 2006 I opened the public house doors at 12 noon. Two regular customers, Jake Newson and Bill Yates, were waiting for the doors to open. Jake Newson and Bill Yates are business partners in a local building company. They asked me if they could leave their work van on the public house car park overnight as they did not want to drink and drive. I agreed to their request, and asked them to park their van on the far edge of the car park, which they duly did.

The pub became busy and the atmosphere was cheerful and pleasant. All of the customers were known to me. Many customers were going straight through to the adjoining restaurant, which was fully booked for dinners.

At approximately 12.45 pm two young brothers, Peter and Adrian Kowland, who are known in the area as untrustworthy labourers, burst into the bar area pushing in front of others waiting to be served. My wife told the men to wait their turn and they became abusive. It was obvious that they had already been drinking and were “worse for drink”. I told the men to calm down and wait their turn, but they didn’t take any notice of me. Their language was offensive. I could see that the situation could get out of hand and I did not want to spoil the festive jollities of my other customers.