BUSHELL: TRIO JAILED FOR PART IN FOOTBALL VIOLENCE

Three football hooligans who took part in an armed brawl outside one of London’s busiest railway stations were jailed for a total of more than two years today (Fri).

Leyton Orient fans Paul Bushell, 41, and Martin Pottle, 23, and Brentford supporter Paul Abley, 21, were part of a mob which fought running battles in violence organised to mark the end of the season.

Travellers at Liverpool Street looked on in terror as rival fans threw bottles and kicked and punched each other.

Abley was jailed for a year, Bushell for eight months and Pottle for six months at the Old Bailey today after jurors convicted them of affray.

Judge Timothy Pontius told them: ‘This can only be regarded as a disgraceful display, causing considerable fear of violence to decent people going about their lives in the vicinity of a busy main line station.

‘I accept that some, if not all the defendants say they themselves were struck, but that is the nature of such an incident.

‘It is only by good fortune that no one was seriously injured, although the very real risk that someone, particularly a member of the public, could easily have been hit by a flying bottle is plain for all to see.

‘This was no doubt a frightening spectacle of drunken mob violence.’

All three hooligans were handed football banning orders – Abley for seven years and Bushell and Pottle for six.

Joel Titus, 19, a leader of the youth wing of the English Defence League, was also involved in the fight and was jailed for nine months at a previous hearing. 

On the night of the violence, May 8 last year, Leyton Orient had been playing away at Colchester and Brentford had hosted Hartlepool.

By 8pm the Orient fans were gathered at Dirty Dicks pub at Liverpool Street while Brentford fans were drinking at the nearby Railway Tavern.

Trouble began when one fan ran was seen to ‘run for his life’ up Liverpool Street, chased by at least 15 rival supporters, and ended when a police car was driven into the middle of the brawl.

Pottle and Bushell were both arrested at the scene, while Abley, who threw a bottle at the Orient group before running off, was identified from CCTV footage.

Leyton fan Bushell was seen pursuing a Brentford supporter during the incident on Saturday, May 8 last year and punching him repeatedly in the head.

He was confronted by tactical firearms officers armed with Tasers and arrested.

Nick Robinson, representing Abley, claimed his client had acted out of ‘petulance’ rather than aggression.

‘This was not an act that would carry the risk of injury,’ he said.

Francis O’Toole, for Bushell, said his client had acted ‘in the heat of the moment.’

‘He was hit by something’, he told Judge Timothy Pontius.

‘He thought this man had thrown a bottle and he wrongly chased him down the street.’

He said he had been under ‘considerable strain’ caused by the breakdown of his marriage and was now trying to set an example for his two sons, aged 14 and 18.

Jonathan Ray, for Pottle, said: ‘This was the first time he had ever been to a football match and he doesn’t ever want to go again.’

Bushell, of Robinia Close, Ilford, Essex, Abley, of Hounslow Road, Feltham, Middlesex, and Pottle, of Hounslow Road, Hanworth, Middlesex, all denied affray.

The sentencing of James McCarthy, 23, of London Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, who was also convicted at the trial, will take place on September 26.

Media studies student Titus, of (62) North View, Pinner, Middlesex, admitted affray in April and was locked up for nine months.

Titus – thought to be an Arsenal fan who also attends Brentford home matches, was also banned from attending football matches for seven years.

ends