Denton pub stripped of licence after fight between two 12-year-old girls happened just outside

A Denton pub has been told it can no longer serve booze after an alleged fight between two 12-year-old girls.

The Crown Point Tavern in the town centre has been under new ownership since February 2024 and their knowledge of the trade has been brought into question after a number of alleged incidents.

After a video showing a fight between two girls outside the Market Street establishment was shared across social media – Greater Manchester Police called for its licence to be reviewed.

The incident was described as ‘a violent and sickening assault’ by a GMP officer in their statement, which left the victim with a concussion as well as bruising to the face. 

“I write this review application as I have serious concerns around the Crown Point Taverns inability to prevent crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance, and the protection of children from harm,” PC Craig Foley’s statement claimed.

“On Friday, May 24 a disturbance took place outside the Crown Point Tavern. A violent assault took place whereby a 12-year-old female was assaulted by another 12-year-old female. The victim of the assault suffered concussion, swelling to face and lips as well as bruising.”

The licence review hearing, held in the Tameside One council building in Ashton, was told how the licence holder Lee Bayley and the premises supervisor Marie Tunney, both present at the meeting, watched and encouraged the fight. 

Mr Bayley was even said to have been filming the fight, according to PC Craig Foley’s statement – but he said it was a card reader in his hand.

The licensing panel were shown the video footage which displayed one girl repeatedly punching the other whilst on the ground with a crowd watching on.

As the video was played PC Foley described where Lee Bayley and Marie Tunney were in the crowd and how the fight was not split up straight away.

Referencing this in his statement, PC Foley said: “The video clearly shows the premises licence holder Lee Bayley stood next to where the assault is taking place and he was filming the assault. Lee makes no attempt to stop the assault and looks to be actively encouraging the extreme violence that is taking place in full view of members of the public including young children.

“During the assault the designated premises supervisor Marie Tunney can be seen preventing a passing member of the public from trying to stop the assault.”

A female was arrested on suspicion of assault and a man arrested on suspicion of threats to kill. Both have been bailed pending further enquiries.

When questioned as to why he didn’t split up the fight, Mr Bayley told the panel: “I split the fight up at the first opportunity.”

He went on to refer to supporting statements in his pub’s defence which claimed to be from an NHS worker and a serving police officer from Cheadle which said that the victim of the assault had actually initiated the fight.

The mother of the victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was present at the hearing and told Mr Bayley and Ms Tunney: “You should both hang your heads in shame.”

She added that she does not believe they are responsible enough to hold a licence.

Prior to this incident, licensing officer Rebecca Birch had already been to the site on April 4 to find a number of breaches to their alcohol licence, the meeting on July 15 heard. These breaches included: no personal licence holder on site; no cctv checks conducted; no staff training record; no toilet checks conducted; and not being a member of pubwatch. 

Further video footage shown to the panel was taken from council CCTV detailing the events outside the pub in the early hours of June 22. Between 2am and 3.20am, much later than the closing time of 11pm stipulated on the pub’s licence, the footage showed the shutters up, lights on and the pub’s front door open.

Licensing officer Ms Birch told the panel how the video showed customers huffing nitrous oxide via balloons, sniffing substances and drinking outside the premises well beyond licensing hours. The footage also showed Lee Bayley present at the time.

When asked why this was happening, Mr Bayley told the panel these were work colleagues who were there just to play darts whilst he cleaned up the cellar of the pub.

He also claimed to have no knowledge of what they were doing with the balloons, saying “I thought they were just being dickheads”. 

When asked by Ms Birch why he had people in the pub after licensing hours, Mr Bayley simply said “why not”. 

In regard to the suspected drug taking and being open out of hours, he added: “If I knew they were taking drugs I would’ve stopped it. I don’t think that it was ‘sniff’ what they were doing from those little bags.

“If I see drugs I get them gone. I am a 42-year-old man with nine kids. I might be a little behind on knowledge of all that but I’m learning.”

Mr Bayley and Ms Tunney both acknowledged that they did not hold up the licensing objectives on the day of the fight on May 24, but said they would work with the licensing team and police to bring the pub up to standard.

The licensing team at Tameside Council, GMP, the mother of the victim and the compliance officer all requested that the panel should remove the pub’s licence. After hearing all the evidence provided, the panel decided to revoke the premises licence of Crown Point Tavern, meaning they can no longer serve booze to customers.