Cruising for bruising ...brawl on P&O liner
A SCENIC cruise of the Norwegian fjords descended into an unseemly brawl during a late-night buffet, a court heard.
The fight on board P&O’s Royal Britannia was allegedly sparked when a family asked “intoxicated” guest Paul Evans, 45, to stop swearing.
Statistician Justin Gardner, his wife Sarah and daughters Alice, 21, and Amelia, 16, went for supper in the early hours of July 26, 2019, and were confronted by Evans, Southampton Crown Court heard.
Offensive
Prosecutor Mark Ashley said: “Mr Evans was intoxicated and when he was near their table, he was using language which a number of people found offensive.”
Mrs Gardner, a nurse, told the court: “My eldest said, ‘Please can you stop talking like that’. Then [Tabatha Young, Evans’s former girlfriend] flew up from another table and started attacking my daughter Alice.”
The mother-of-three, whose
son had gone to bed, said Evans punched her husband who fell to the floor “unconscious”.
Mrs Gardner said Evans then turned on Alice, with one hand round her neck and using the other to “punch her repeatedly”.
She added: “I was trying to pull him off her and he punched me. Then I felt calm and got my husband’s mobile phone from his suit pocket and started to film this man so I could get evidence.” After spotting he was
being filmed, Evans turned on Mrs Gardner, the court heard.
She said: “He wrestled me for the phone. He was punching and kicking me.” He allegedly hurled the phone into the sea and Evans and his partner were finally restrained by security.
Young, of Chigwell, Essex, has admitted causing actual bodily harm. Evans, of Ilford, East London, denies one charge of robbery and three of causing actual bodily harm.
The trial continues.