Peterborough pub landlord’s anger after assault court case dropped as CPS have issues with CCTV

A Peterborough pub landlord has spoken of his anger after a court case against a man who was charged with assaulting him was dropped on the day of the trial - nearly four years after the alleged incident happened.

Stuart Johnson suffered a hemorrhage to his eyes in the incident, which happened in October 2019 at the Golden Pheasant pub in Etton.

A man had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm (AOABH), had pleaded not guilty, and was due to stand trial at Peterborough Crown Court on Tuesday.

However, on the day of the trial, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were forced to drop the case, after having issues with CCTV evidence that was set to be used.

Mr Johnson alleged he had been headbutted and his head stamped on in the incident. He said: “The incident happened on October 6 2019, when we had a function at the pub.

“The police came, and we were not able to open up the next day as a result.

“I couldn’t open my right eye, and had a black eye. I went to the opticians, who said I had suffered two small hemorrhages, which were similar to what a boxer might have.

“We never had to do this before, but we now pay £150 for security to come to any function we have - even if it is a wake - to prevent anything like this happening again.”

Mr Johnson said the case had been put in a ‘warned list’ at court - where a specific date for a trial is not set, but it can be listed at any point in a two week period when the court has time to deal with the case, but with no guarantee it would be heard in the two weeks - on three occasions, before it was finally listed for Tuesday (June 20).

But when Mr Johnson arrived at court for the afternoon start, he was told there was a problem.

He said: “We were put in a room, and then told the CPS did not have the CCTV footage available, and the judge had said that as a result the case would not go ahead and the defendant was a free man.

“I could not believe it. It had taken nearly four years to get to this point. We were so angry.

“We could not believe they did not have the CCTV, when the trial date had been known for a while.

“We are writing to the chief of police, about it, because it does not seem right.”

The case against the defendant was discontinued, as the CPS offered no evidence.

A spokesperson for the CPS said they ‘regretted’ what had happened.

The spokesperson said: “Shortly before the trial began it became apparent that we were unable to meet our required legal obligations in relation to a piece of CCTV footage. Consequently, we were unable to continue and had to offer no evidence to the Court, this stopped the case from proceeding to trial.

“The CPS take matters such as this very seriously and we regret that the case ended in this way. We have written to the victim and provided an explanation.”