LITCHFIELD: 'Yobs swarmed to assault me'

'Yobs swarmed to assault me'

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=534340

A RAILWAY worker arrested after trouble at Ulverston station told police how a group of young people “swarmed round him like a rash”.

It was “like a rugby scrum”, said Patrick Lafferty, 47, who claimed that a dozen youths had walked to him in a menacing manner and were “verbally obnoxious”.

“I was encompassed by them,” he told police.

Lafferty of Aldwych Terrace, Ulverston, told Preston Crown Court, the ringleader called him a “tosser” and other names.

He said his rucksack slipped down and his arms were pinned by his side and he was headbutted.

Lafferty said he had no control over his movement and they had swarmed round him like a rash. He tried to contact police on his mobile but he was punched and the phone went on the floor and split in two.

Lafferty, who has no convictions, said a vicious punch had left him needing plastic surgery to his lip.

He had also been kicked or punched after he went to the floor, he said.

The railway worker and a 16-year-old youth deny affray last September. They have also pleaded not guilty to using or threatening unlawful violence on September 29.

It followed a teenage party at the Buffers nightclub after which some young people had been walking on the railway track, according to the prosecution.

In his police interview, the 16-year-old said the railway worker (Lafferty), had been shouting about people being on the track.

He then headbutted a youth whose nose was bleeding, and the youth hit the worker.

The 16-year-old said he did not touch the railway worker or go anywhere near him, and there was no contact between them.

The trial continues.