New equipment helps police to net football thug (From Gazette & Herald)

New equipment helps police to net football thug

NEW police surveillance equipment caught a York City fan using violent and threatening behaviour towards another man after the Boxing Day match with Scarborough, a court heard.

David Murray, 38, from Askrigg House, Bouthwaite Drive, York, is one of the first people to be prosecuted in North Yorkshire with the help of evidence from new hand-held cameras, after he grabbed another man outside the Tap and Spile pub in the resort.

The father of two, who works for City of York Council, pleaded guilty to breaching Section Four of the Public Order Act at Scarborough Magistrates' Court on Monday.

He said: "I'm completely ashamed of myself for even being here," he said. "I'm 38 years old and should know better. I just say sorry."

Paul Bowater, prosecuting, said Murray was with a large group of York City supporters in The Ship pub in Scarborough when police began following them. The group, which grew to around 30, then moved onto the Tap and Spile, where they were chanting abuse at the owners, who were thought to be Scarborough fans.

Murray was then seen to grab hold of a man in a violent and aggressive manner. The man broke free and fled. Police were called to another incident in the town, but were later able to identify and arrest Murray using the CCTV footage they had gathered.

Murray was given a £100 fine and ordered to pay a further £50 court costs.

Helmsley community beat officer PC Ray Thwaites, who is one of North Yorkshire's newly-trained public order evidence gatherers, recorded the footage of Murray on Boxing Day, along with PC Paul Rogers from Scarborough.

Speaking after the hearing, he said: "The camera meant that, even though we were called away from the incident, we were able to go back and do something about it later."

Chief Superintendent Ken Gill, of Scarborough police station, said: "We've got a number of officers trained to use the technology, North Yorkshire Police force has just spent thousands of pounds as part of the over-arching drive to tackle threatening and violent behaviour in the county.

"I was very pleased to hear about the arrest and even more pleased to here about the conviction.

"We are always looking to use the equipment because, like CCTV, if someone is on film then we don't need any witnesses as we have hard evidence."

Updated: 12:33 Wednesday, January 12, 2005