South Yorkshire pub landlady clubbed troublemaker with golf umbrella

Sarah Parker wrestled the umbrella from the man after he poked her with the point and used foul language, in the Cumberland pub, on Beighton High Street, last year.

"Something had gone off between them," Carl Fitch, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court, on Friday.

The court heard that the customer had been "causing trouble" for nearly an hour, and "wouldn't go quietly," before Parker overpowered him and hit him with the brolly.

While trying to dodge out of the way the self-employed builder, who was in his 50s, fell to the floor, and sustained a sprained ankle and twisted knee which kept him off work for ten weeks.

James Baird, mitigating, said Parker has since left the pub trade and had just started a new job.

"Mrs Parker clearly accepts responsibility for this," he said.

Parker, 46, of Carlyle Road, Maltby, pleaded guilty to the charge of GBH before a trial on December 18, last year.

The court heard she has one previous conviction for a "minor battery", from 2016, when she received a conditional discharge.

Deputy circuit judge Robert Moore said: "You could probably write a pHd on the morality of whose responsibility this injury is.

"A customer should be able to go to the pub without being assaulted. On the other hand, the landlady is entitled not to be pushed around by a drunk customer.

"Had he just left there would have been no injury.

"In the end she went too far in defence of her daughter."

The judge said the severity of the injury meant a custodial sentence was required, but the "overall justice of the situation" meant it could be suspended.

He also ruled that no compensation was necessary.

Parker was given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.