Queens Park Rangers fan was 'slaughtered' (From Watford Observer)

Queens Park Rangers fan was 'slaughtered'

2:31pm Thursday 9th July 2009

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Two Queen's Park Rangers fans – including one from Watford – have been found guilty of violent disorder by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court and warned to expect jail.

Paul Colman and John Spear were convicted of being involved in the disturbance in the buffet bar at Manningtree railway station after the Ipswich Town game on 29 March last year.

Judge David Turner QC adjourned sentence until 6 August and granted them bail but warned "custody is inevitable".

Colman, 50, of Romilly Drive, Watford, Herts, and John Spear, 57, of Pield Road, Hillingdon, had both pleaded not guilty.

The court heard that violence erupted when QPR fans piled off the London-bound 6.18pm train after their 0-0 draw with Ipswich Town. Women and children were among those attacked in the "mayhem" inside the bar. Customers were punched and kicked, glasses were thrown and smashed and one QPR supporter used a bar stool as a weapon to hit a man over the head.

Prosecutor Stephanie Farrimond said in her closing speech: "It was akin to something out of the Wild West, a scene where we expect to see cowboys brawling in a bar and tumbling into a dusty street. It was mayhem."

Colman and Spear both have previous convictions for football related incidents and are subject to three-year banning orders from attending games.

Miss Sankey identified them as kicking and/or punching 60-year-old Ipswich supporter Robert Williams and she pointed Colman out to police.

Colman told the court he was "slaughtered" and couldn't remember what he had or hadn't done because he was so drunk.

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