Blandford, Wimborne and Poole Telegram. — 1877-01-05 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

MURDEROUS ATTACK UPON A PUBLICAN IN BIRMINGHAM.  About ten o'clock on Wednesday night, a desperate affray took place at the George and Dragon, in Church-street, Birmingham. The neighbourho.sl is known to be inhabited by some of the roughest of Birmingham " rOughs," and other characters " known to the police ;" and so dangerous is it considered that frequently it is deemed necessary to take the precaution of sending two officers round a beat together. It is stated that a number of disorderly characters went into the George and Dragon, and amongst them was John Smith, about 23 years of age, Ascribed as a brassfounder, of Slauey-street, and said to bear the alias of "Daddy." The landlord, Mr. George Brand, it is stated, believed Smith to be intoxicated, and when he and his companions asked for drink Mr. Brand told them they were drunk and ordered them to leave the house. Smith refused to do so, and became very boisterous. The landlord there. upon proceeded to eject him, but found that he could la ,t accomplish the task, for Smith at once fell upon him and beat him unmercifully about the head with a soldier's belt. The other men also attacked him and beat him violently. Mr. Brand managed to secure a revolver, and with this he struck them in self-defence. A number of other persons were in the house, but it is alleged that they were all friends of Smith's, and instead of aiding the landlord they 'helped his opponents. Mrs. Brand went t ) the rescue of her husband, but she met w-Uh similar ill-treatment, and the result to both of them must have been serious but for the timely arrival—as Smith and Brand were struggling desperately on the floor—of Police Constables Byard and M'Guile. Seeing that Smith appeared to be the principal offender, officers at once marched him off to the lockup in Moor-street. They then returned to the house, to find that it had, in their words, been " regularly sacked." It appeared that the friends of the prisoner, fiading he was secured, had thrown nearly every missile they could get hold of at the windows, scarcely any of which were left whole, and they had also smashed glasses, decanters, chandeliers, and most of the things which were breakable inside the house. The landlord was so seriously injured about the head, particularly near to the base of the skull, by the blows from the belt, that he was taken to the hospital to have his injuries attended to. Mrs. Brand was also badly cut on the hand. The prisoner himself, too, sustained some severe scalp wounds, inflicted by the blows dealt with the revolver. The officers took him to the Queen's Hospital to have the wounds dressed. When arrested he said, "It's a pity you've come; I meant to settle him." At the police station two knives were found in his pocket, and one of these was open, as if lute: led for use. The disturbance .outside the public-house continued for some time after Smith was taken to the lock.up, and in order to quell the disorder and afford protection to the landlord and the house eight policemen were sent.—At the Bir. mingliam Police Court, on Friday, Benjamin Mole, alias John Smith, alias Daddy, shoeblack, was committed for trial for the assault on Mr. Brand.