Millionaire f loored as daughter’s 18th turns into a brawl
Guest ‘lashed out’ during party at £2m mansion
WHEN millionaire businessman Robert Hughes threw a lavish party for his daughter’s 18th birthday, he hoped it would be a tasteful celebration.
Instead, the bash – held in a marquee in the grounds of his £2.2million Cheshire stockbroker belt mansion – ended with a brawl.
Punches were thrown, police called, and Mr Hughes, 59, needed treatment in hospital for a gashed head and black eye.
Trouble flared at his daughter Ellen’s party at around 1am on Christmas Eve 2015 when a group of boys began fighting on the lawn of his gated home in Mottram St Andrew, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Mr Hughes said his wife Kathryn, 52, a novelist, told him it was ‘kicking off’ outside, so he went to intervene. ‘I had never witnessed anything like that, least of all in my own garden,’ he said. ‘In my naivete I thought shouting would suffice.’
Mr Hughes, a consultant who previously ran a watch and gift importation business, tried to cajole the youngsters to leave but was punched in the face by guest Lawrence Adams, then 18, it is claimed.
The businessman, who is vice- chairman of the parish council, said: ‘I was in shock that an 18-year-old boy could have the temerity to punch the father of the girl whose birthday it was. I am still incredulous now.’
As the group neared the electronic gates to the property, Mr Hughes claimed, he was punched again by Adams, who denies assault causing actual bodily harm.
The smack floored Mr Hughes, who struck his head on either the gate pillar or postbox, causing a nasty gash.
He said: ‘I got straight up and the defendant was standing in front of me laughing.
‘I punched him. I regretted it immediately but I suppose we all have a breaking point. I punched him on the nose. His reaction was shock and indignation and complete fury. He was furious that someone had the temerity to punch him back. I went to the house to call the police because I couldn’t control the situation.’
Mr Hughes admitted he armed himself with a wooden pick- axe handle – without the metal pick – before returning to the bottom of the drive to wait for the police, but then thought better of it and propped it against the gate post.
Five police cars arrived and Adams was arrested. Unlike most of the 60 guests, Adams did not attend Stockport Grammar School with Ellen, who is now a student at Liverpool University, and was only there because a friend had persuaded her to let him attend.
Peter Whitty, prosecuting, said the first blow may not have been intended for Mr Hughes but claimed that, during the melee, Adams also twice struck Mr Hughes’s son Cameron, 23, and his friend, John Scott, breaking his glasses.
Adams, of Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, does not face any charges in relation to them.
He told the court he hit out at Mr Hughes only after being punched by him first, although Mr Hughes said that was ‘ preposterous’. The court heard the fight began after Alex Goulding, a friend of Adams, asked for a vodka from the party’s free bar but was told it was for the girls only. He claimed it prompted an altercation between his friend and Cameron Hughes.
‘Cameron and his mates had a kind of superior attitude because they were older and thought they could push us around,’ Adams, who admitted he had drunk around seven glasses of prosecco, claimed.
He said Cameron and his friends continued to taunt Mr
‘I’d never seen anything like it’ ‘Superior attitude’
Goulding during the evening. Adams said there was some pushing and shoving which escalated. He claimed Mr Scott threw the first punch and he threw one back.
Referring to Mr Hughes, he said: ‘I was shocked to see this 6ft 3in guy towering above me looking very aggressive and in that moment in an act of selfdefence I thought I need to hit this guy back. After I punched him I backed off.’
He denied that he had struck Mr Hughes a second blow and stood over him laughing.
The case continues.