Royal George 1960s

Folkestone Herald 31-7-1965

Local News

A young woman asked Folkestone Magistrates on Tuesday “Stop this man molesting me everywhere I go. He is making my life a misery”.

She told him that he had threatened to kill her. That was one evening when she had been out with friends. Miss Sheila Leggett, of Bridge Street, Folkestone, said he had called her over to him, and then started to call her all the dirty things he could. “He started bashing me”, she went on. “He grabbed me by the coat and swung me round. This is not the first time it has happened. It has been going on for a long time now. My friends stood and watched to see what would happen”. Miss Leggett had brought a private prosecution for common assault against 22-year-old Eamonn McShane, of Pavilion Road, Folkestone.

He pleaded Not Guilty, and finally the Magistrates bound over both Miss Leggett and McShane to keep the peace in the sum of £5 each for 12 months.

Cross-examined by Mr. T. Hulme, junior, defending, Miss Leggett agreed there were several people round the stalls in The Stade when McShane assaulted her.

“Are you really telling us that all these people were about and stood and did nothing while he grabbed you?” asked Mr. Hulme.

Miss Leggett: Only my cousin. She told him to keep his hands off me.

She said that on previous occasions McShane had “busted her nose in” at her home, and last year outside the Beach Hotel he had made as if to hit her. She had defended herself that time by punching him on the face. She had also punched the girl with him when the girl was funny with her. Miss Leggett said she had danced with McShane at a dance last Wednesday. That was after he had tried to throttle her and she had laid the complaint against him. “The only reason I danced with him was to stop trouble”, she said. “No matter what boy I talk to he comes up starting trouble”.

Mr. Hulme: Were you not, in fact, trying to persuade him to plead Guilty today?

Miss Leggett: No. Since it all came out he has been nearly on his knees to make me stop the case.

McShane told the Court that he had met Miss Leggett and had taken her and her friend into the Royal George and stood them a drink. Miss Leggett had then left him and joined her friends there. They left without him. Later he went into the Jubilee Inn where he saw Miss Leggett and her friends. “They laughed at me and took the Mickey out of me”, he said. Outside he took her by the lapels of her jacket and pushed her, saying “Stay with your friends”.

Mr. Hulme told the Court: I was going to say this was a storm in a tea cup, but I do not think anyone had been drinking tea that evening. The truth is these people had been out on a pub crawl and Miss Leggett abandoned McShane for her friends.

Binding over Miss Leggett and McShane, Mrs. D. Buttery, deputy Chairman, told them to keep out of each other`s way. “If you come up against each other in that time you will forfeit the sum of £5”, she said.