South Kent Gazette 3 December 1980.

Canterbury Crown Court.

A former Lydd man who hit another man with a beer glass was put on probation for two years and ordered to pay £100 legal costs at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday. Peter Bryan, now of Anson Road, Tuffnall Park, pleaded Not Guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Carl Yearsley in May, 1979.

Mr. Christopher Hookway, prosecuting, said Bryan and another man called Michael Blythe were in the cellar bar of Folkestone’s Norfolk Hotel when there was some sort of staring encounter between them and Yearsley. Blythe spoke to Yearsley, who then went up to the two men and suggested they went outside. Blythe and Yearsley left, followed by Bryan, and outside Bryan saw Yearsley on the ground with Blythe on top hitting Yearsley, said Mr. Hookway. “Yearsley was hit with a pint glass by Bryan, and remembered no more until he woke up in hospital”, he said.

Bryan had a number of previous convictions, but his counsel, Mr. J. French, said he had left the area now and was living and working successfully in London. At the time Bryan lived at Brooks Way, Lydd, and Mr. French said he bitterly regretted the incident. “He realises he is in serious trouble and it was a very foolish thing to do but it seems the only injury caused by the glass was a cut to Yearsley’s forehead. Thi matter has been hanging over him for a long time and he has felt remorse ever since”.

South Kent Gazette 4 February 1981.

Rochester Crown Court.

A man involved in a fight that went too far was given a suspended prison sentence last Tuesday after a judge described it as a case of “least said, soonest mended”.

Michael Blythe, formerly of St. John’s Street, Folkestone, pleaded Guilty at Rochester Crown Court to a charge of causing grievous bodily harm. But Judge John Streeter, imposing a 12 month jail sentence, suspended for two years, said “One is bound to bear in mind this is not your first charge involving violence, but I accept the part the victim played in this, though I dare say he expected a fair fight”.

Earlier, the Court heard how an argument between Blythe and a friend, and the victim, Karl Yearsley, developed into a fight outside the Norfolk Hotel, in Folkestone. Blyth was on top of Yearsley and his accomplice was kicking him and hitting him with a beer glass. The other man involved had already been dealt with by the courts.

Mr Anthony Webb, defending, said Blyth, who now lives at New Addington, accepted that the fight had gone too far. But initially it was the victim, Yearsley, who was responsible, in part, at least, for what happened.