A JURY heard graphic eye-witness accounts of terrifying violence between Huddersfield Town and Millwall fans which erupted outside a pub a year ago.
One police officer described the clashes, which involved bottles and stones being thrown across a busy main road, as “the most frightening experience” of his time in the force.
And the manageress of The Waterloo pub on Wakefield Road, Waterloo, said she felt physically sick to her stomach.
Bystanders caught up in the early-evening violence before the sides’ League One match on April 16 last year described feeling shocked and scared by what they saw, as around 60 men fought running battles.
The mayhem was labelled The Battle of Waterloo.
A jury at Bradford Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the fighting and missile throwing which began after three minibuses containing Millwall supporters stopped opposite the pub where Huddersfield fans were drinking before the Friday night encounter.
In a statement read to the court manageress Joanne Garner described how she had seen some lads gesturing and jeering at a Millwall coach and then 15 minutes later she heard a male voice shout: “They’re here”.
She said there was a mass rush by a group of young men towards the exit door of the pub. She told a man who had armed himself with a pool cue that he was not going out with it but he pushed her away.
The manageress said doors were then locked and one of the staff brought a family inside. She said after seeing what happened between the two rival factions she felt physically sick to her stomach.
Prosecutor Bashir Ahmed told the jury that six Millwall supporters and 13 Huddersfield followers had already pleaded guilty to involvement in the clashes, but Millwall fan Grant Mason, 42, from Beckenham, Kent, went on trial yesterday after he denied a charge of violent disorder.
Mason claims that he was defending himself or others, but Mr Ahmed said it was the prosecution’s case that his actions went beyond self defence.
Mr Ahmed alleged that Mason was involved in a fight with two other males and that he threw one punch, knocking one man to the ground.
